In this age of automation, many people complain that humans are becomingsubservient to machines. In my point of view, in some respects humans servemachines, while in other respects machines serve us by enhancing our lives.While mechanical automation may have diminished our quality of life onbalance, digital automation is doing more to improve our lives than toundermine our autonomy.
Consider first mechanical automation, particularly as百度竞价推广bly-linemanufacturing. With automation came a loss of pride in and alienation1 fromone's work. In this sense, automation both diminished our quality of lifeand rendered us slaves to machines in our inability to reverse progress.Admittedly, mechanical automation spawned2 entire industries, creating jobs,stimulating economic growth, and supplying a plethora3 of innovativeconveniences. Nevertheless, the sociological and environmental price ofprogress may have outweighed4 its benefits.
Digital automation has brought its own brand of alienation. Computerautomation, and especially the internet, breeds information overload5 andsteals our time and attention away from family, community，and coworkers.In these respects, digital automation tends to diminish our quality of lifeand create its own legion of human slaves. On the other hand, by relegatingrepetitive tasks to computers, digits6 technology has spawned great advancesin medicine and physics, helping7 us to better understand the world, toenhance our health, and to prolong our lives. Digital automation has alsoemancipated architects, artists, designers, and musicians, by opening upcreative possibilities and by saving time. Perhaps most important, however,information technology makes possible universal access to information,thereby providing a democratizing influence on our culture.
In sum, while mechanical automation may have created a society of slaves tomodern conveniences and unfulfilling work, digital automation holds morepromise for improving our lives without enslaving us to the technology.
