this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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Automation is so incredibly resource intensive and generates so much waste. I can't see how letting ourselves become more dependant on automation is as beneficial as businesses and mislead common people make it out to be.
As demand increases, so does maintenance, upgrades and power consumption. Everything electronic requires plastic. Which is shipped in more plastic. Which is shipped on skids wrapped in more plastic. And when those electronics fail, then that is just more waste plastic because it's easier, quicker and cheaper to replace rather than fix.
Electronics and automation are so fun and interesting. It's amazing watching a line run at full speed in production. But it's so painfully depressing how awful it is for our environment. The dust and oils are awful for the living beings that work in those environments. The repetitive jobs that it creates is absolutely awful for the mental wellbeing for the people who work there.
The mental damage of being there was so bad to me that when it came time to discuss severance pay at the labour board meeting after my wrongful termination, I purposely let the lawyers keep in a part in the contract/paperwork saying I could no longer work at any company under that international organization. They thought I would fight that so they would have reason to lower my severance pay. Nah. I took my winnings, which included getting the HR manager fired, and fucked right off.
Years later and I still feel a deep shame and regret for the time I spent in the automation industry and for all the damage and waste I caused while being in there.
Along with eliminating wealth hoarders who generate extreme amounts of waste, lessening our dependence on technology and automation are things I personally believe will be key to a liveable future. It's a bit shocking to me how often I receive negative or angry criticism when I share these thoughts though.
You receive criticism because you are wrong. Automation is just using technology to make things with less effort. I'm very happy letting a machine weave my clothes, rather than having to sit down and twist the threads to weave my clothes with my fingers. Eschewing automation wouldn't just result in less environmental waste - it would send us back to the dark ages, except worse, because we could not possibly feed and clothes the world's population without automated systems. Humans, desperate for food and shelter, would constantly be at war with each other and would chop down every forest and slaughter every animal in a desperate attempt at survival.
Meanwhile, there is no reason it must be awful for the environment or people. If single use plastics are a problem because they are cheaper than the alternative, then the solution is obvious: make plastics more expensive. This is called a Pigouvian Tax, and it is very effective. Any time we notice something which has a negative impact on the world, but which has no negative impact for its user, we just tax it until its use has been decreased to an acceptable level.
Dust and oils in a work environment are solveable by wearing PPE.
The unpleasantness of a job is solveable by making life affordable for workers so they can just quit if they don't like it.
These are all solveable problems, and I see no need to make the whole world way shittier to solve them.