AUTOMATION

The term automation was coined by John Diebold (born 1926), a pioneering management consultant and entrepreneur, when he shortened the more correct term automatization. His classic book Automation (1952) was the first to advocate this process, and to consider the general implications of this process for manufacturing and society. Using what were at that time only emerging concepts of control, communication, and computers, he described the coming industrial world of automated production and predicted the incipient information revolution. In pioneering the automation of production systems, Diebold extended the concepts of materials handling to information handling, to analyzing information flows, and to studying ways to automate office processes.

The Automation Process

In general the term automation describes the employment of automatic devices as a substitute for human physical or mental labor. An automatic device is one that performs a specified function without human intervention. Critical in one form of this process is "feedback." For example, when an autopilot is set to fly an airplane along a given course, it will by itself correct any deviation from that course caused by air turbulence. It does this by sensing the degree of deviation from the course and then actuating the appropriate control surfaces, such as ailerons, elevators, and rudder of the plane in a way that will restore the desired heading.

The sensors of the autopilot measure the amount of deviation from the course and "feed back" the right amount of electrical signal or hydraulic pressure to restore the intended course. A system with these characteristics also is referred to as a servomechanism or control system. Norbert Wiener (1894–1964), a pioneer in developing the theory of control systems, used the word cybernetics to describe the science of control and communication in both machines and living organisms.

In automating a manufacturing process, functions once performed by humans are replaced by automatic devices that replicate those functions. Computers are widely used for process control. Manufacturers invest in automation because it increases productivity per worker employed, creates greater uniformity of product, and lowers cost per unit of output.

Economic Implications

The substitution of human and animal effort by machines has been pursued throughout history. Some substitutions have been beneficial in their effect, relieving humans from the need to do heavy physical labor. Automation is a relatively recent development in the long history of technological change and a new issue in long-standing debates about technological unemployment. These debates were particularly fierce during the Industrial Revolution in England, when new machines displaced workers and left many unemployable.

Many economists argue that automation, along with technological change in general, does not add to total unemployment. Total unemployment is not affected by technological innovation because although workers in one industrial sector lose jobs, others gain employment through the creation of new jobs. Frequently cited evidence includes the widespread anxiety in the 1950s that automation would lead to mass unemployment, which never materialized. This anxiety can be chalked up to the "lump of labor fallacy," which holds that there is a constant amount of work to be performed in the world, and therefore any increase in the productivity of workers reduces the number of available jobs.

Ethical Issues

Ethical issues arise when public policies or the strategies of industrial management lead to unemployment and other consequences that harm the life of the individual or lead to social dislocation. Diebold was much concerned with the social effects of automation and predicted that the "age of automation" would transform society as radically as did the Industrial Revolution but that that change would be more profound because the rate of change had become so much more rapid. He acknowledged that automation created some employment problems but stated that the social effects of communications and computer systems will be more insidious because information, its communication, and its use will change people's approach to work, society, and life.

It was Ben B. Seligman who in Most Notorious Victory (1966) cataloged the harmful consequences of automation. With a social scientist's broad interest in the human condition he systematically examined the economic, social, psychological, and philosophical implications of automation. His main indictment is implied in the title: The successful diffusion of wave upon wave of new technology threatens to destroy essential human qualities. New technologies render traditional work patterns obsolete, and the mechanization of labor may undermine the significance of work as a source of meaning for many people. Seligman also was concerned that complex technological issues that require the judgment of experts will weaken the democratic process and lead to a situation in which technocrats will chart the future of society.

Ethical issues that derive from automation will continue to confront society. There appears to be no end to technological innovation in the foreseeable future and to the application of automation to new areas. The new frontier for automation is no longer production but the service industries, prominent among them health care, financial services, telecommunications, retail, and transportation.

A. GEORGE SCHILLINGER

SEE ALSO Artificial Intelligence;Autonomous Technology;Cybernetics;Wiener, Norbert;Work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Diebold, John. (1952). Automation: Its Impact on Business and Labor. New York: Van Nostrand. The first comprehensive book on the subject. It is prophetic in its projections of how automation and computers will change production, management, labor and the nature of work in the office.

Quinn, Francis X., ed. (1962). The Ethical Aftermath of Automation. Westminster, MD: Newman Press.

Seligman, Ben B. (1966). Most Notorious Victory: Man in an Age of Automation. New York: Free Press. A systematic and sensitive analysis of the harm massive rapid technological development and automation in particular can inflict on the individual and society.

Zuboff, Shoshana. (1988). In the Age of the Smart Machine. New York: Basic Books.