Technological Revolution Essay Research Paper The Technological — страница 2

United States and Europe have not embraced industrial robots at nearly the rate of the Japanese, and other more consumer oriented versions are very much in the development phase. Even so, industry sources believe that the use of robots to make clothes and other consumer goods will be common by the turn of the century. This general trend (the use of robotics) is likely to change, perhaps dramatically, in the next two decades. Robots are in one sense collections of other more basic technologies: sensors, controlling and analysis software, pattern recognition capabilities and so on. Most all of these other technologies will make significant strides in capability, size, power requirements, and other design characteristics and the integration of these other advances should accrue

directly to robotics. Robots are machines which combine computer technology with industrial machines. The computers are programmed to operated the machines. Robots come in many shapes and sizes and can be programmed to perform a variety of tasks. Robots are gradually being introduced on assembly lines in some industries. In automated factories, the amount produced by each human worker increases tremendously, but robots are very expensive for industries to buy. Only large industries such as the auto industry currently develops, though, the cost of robots is dropping and improvements to robots are making them more flexible so more manufacturers will find them useful. The use of robotics effects our economy immensely. Robots are much more durable, faster, efficient, ,reliable and

cheaper “workers”. The use of robots in industries will rise because employers will see the advantages that robots have over human employees. The utilization of robots in the workplace will have a massive effect to the unemployment rate. Automation: Moving in a New Direction A small number of decisions we make play a major role in shaping many other areas of our lives. For example, when we decide what (and how) we will consume, a huge system of farms, distributors, stores, manufactures, restaurants etc these respond directly to those desires. One of the most important decisions we make concerns the way we move ourselves and our commodities. Our system of transportation greatly affects how we use energy, develop technology , affect the economy and environment, and shape our

social relationships. When Henry Ford was starting out on his remarkable career in Detroit, a bustling town which gave full vent to the creative energies of some amazing innovators, the economy of was showing enormous cracks. But at the time, even the most prescient of fortune-tellers would have had trouble forecasting what was about to happen. Carriage and buggy-whip makers were still turning handsome profits in a growing market, and the few cars on the dusty, unpaved roads were little more than fanciful toys for the adventurous rich. Some of the communications technologies pioneered toward the end of the nineteenth century must have seemed just as esoteric to the leading financiers and industrialists of the day, who were doing fine bankrolling the traditional industries they

knew so well. Yet, within a few short years, Ford and others would shape consumer products out of the new technologies that would set in motion an awesome economic transformation. Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile. Nor did he invent mass production or the assembly line. Ford is famous because he took these existing concepts and incorporated them into a n efficient, large-scale system of manufacturing inexpensive, reliable cars. “I’m going to democratize the automobile.” Ford said, “and when I’m through, everybody will have one.” (Chase, 1997, 47) Cars have made a big difference in the way communities have been designed. Street layout, the design of homes, and traffic laws have changed as methods of transportation has changed throughout history. Automobiles are

responsible for more than half the airborne pollution in the western world. Many plans are being developed to control air pollution. Burning cleaner fuel and burning fuel more efficiently both help the environment. Pollution controls devices for cars have also been developed. For example, catalytic systems were installed in many car exhaust systems in the 1980s. These devices change dangerous gases into harmless carbon dioxide and water. They also burn up much of the exhaust with fresh air in a chamber near the exhaust pipe. The car of the future will need new designs which make even better use of the fuel which powers them. Cars influence the ways communities are developing. Since it is possible to drive great distances rapidly, many people choose to live far away from where