Musings on Automation: Side Effects of Technology
Published on : Monday 07-11-2022
Can Automation be an ally in guiding mankind to deal more gently and humbly with nature, asks PV Sivaram.
Anand was clearly despondent today. His head was hanging down; he would not make eye contact. I waited a while, that he would open up by himself, but he was not forthcoming. So I decided to break the ice. We are lucky to be alive today, I exclaimed. So many labour saving devices, gadgets – they make our lives so comfortable. Anand looked up sharply. There was some anger and frustration in his eyes. I wish I was born a hundred years ago, when there was not so much technology all around, Anand nearly screamed. After some probing, the source of anguish got revealed. He had a friend who was strongly involved in protesting against the exploitation of nature for selfish benefit of mankind. The result of this exploitation was a depredation of nature. Results are seen all around.
This diagnosis is correct – it is man who exploits nature for his selfish benefits. This exploitation leads to undesirable and sometimes unforeseen effects. But if the younger generation would oppose technology itself, because of the side effects, it would be a bad portent for future. I wanted to guide him in the right direction. The answer is not to stop development all together, but to regulate the use of technology and products. By using technology, we are able to provide better healthcare, better communications. Specifically by use of automation, we are able to manufacture goods and services to feed and clothe the eight billion people on earth. We are able to distribute the goods and services across the globe.
Anand was not done. His friend had given a strong lecture to him – a piece of her mind so to speak. She had explained to him that development had gone beyond the limit of what was necessary and safe, and a time had come to put a stop to it. Mankind should learn to manage with what we have, instead of going on inventing more and more gadgets. She told him that so many things are invented today, for which no purpose is known or imagined.
I told Anand, that is not where wisdom lies. Michael Faraday was asked of his new discovery of electromagnetism about what could be the use of this discovery. Faraday is said to have retorted – “what is the use of a new born child?” This is true of every new discovery and invention. It is difficult to foresee the possible applications of such discoveries. Applications come about out of needs and ingenuity. In a given application, more than one technology or innovation could be at play. Such applications may be beneficial or they may be harmful – may be to be used in weaponry or war.
Technology does not grow organically. It grows through a process of evolution, hand in hand with evolution of human society. This is a triad – nature, humans and technology. All animals evolve to change themselves to adapt to changes in nature and environment. Man alone attempts to create an environment to suit his needs, overcoming nature. This man achieves by deploying technology. When we use technology to control or modify nature, we sometimes do end up creating some new problems. The answer here is more technology, not less. We cannot attempt to rollback technology. Such rollback could cause huge difficulties and create misery for millions.
By using natural materials to serve our purpose, like trees we made significant progress. As demands from population grew, we invented automation to make the process faster. However at a point we discovered that we are reaching limits of such growth. And a short time later, we also discovered that such felling of trees was giving raise to problems like climate change. Time came for invention of plastics as a substitute for plant-based raw materials. But with use over a period of time, plastics too brought about their set of problems. The solution for problems of technology lies in humans regulating their consumption and disposal, not in rejecting a technology which offers so much convenience and safety.
Anand got a little convinced, at least to the extent to offer a scope for debate with his lady friend. But he did want to go a step further. Can Automation be an ally in guiding mankind to deal more gently and humbly with nature, he wondered. Sure, I responded resoundingly. We can use automation to reduce energy consumption, to reduce waste, to reduce unwanted inventory build-up. Automation can help us to reduce emissions and preserve our ecosystem. Automation is our friend, but only when we use it for positive causes.
PV Sivaram, Evangelist for Digital Transformation and Industrial Automation, is mentor and member of steering committee at C4i4. He retired as the Non-Executive Chairman of B&R Industrial Automation and earlier the Managing Director. He is a past President of the Automation Industries Association (AIA). After his graduation in Electronics Engineering from IIT-Madras in 1976, Sivaram began his career at BARC. He shifted to Siemens Ltd and has considerable experience in Distributed Systems, SCADA, DCS, and microcontroller applications.
Sivaram believes strongly that digitalisation and adoption of the technology and practices of Industry4.0 is essential for MSME of India. He works to bring these concepts clearer to the people for whom it is important. He believes SAMARTH UDYOG is nearer to the needs of India, and we must strike our own path to Digital Transformation. Foremost task ahead is to prepare people for living in a digital world. He is convinced that the new technologies need to be explored and driven into shop floor applications by young people. We need a set of people to work as Digital Champions in every organisation.
