Social, Organizational, and Individual Impacts of Automation

Abstract

Automation and control technologies have been a key enabler of past industrial revolutions and thus of the world we live in today, with substantial footprints in sectors as different as aviation, automotive, healthcare, industrial processes, the built infrastructure, and power grids. Humanity has benefited in multifarious ways as a consequence, through increased physical, social, and economic well-being. Yet, these same developments have also been at the center of concerns related to sustainability, equity, and ethics. These concerns are being exacerbated with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, pervasive sensing, internet of things, nanotechnologies, neurotechnologies, biotechnologies, and genetic technologies, which are being incorporated in a new generation of engineered systems: smart cities, autonomous vehicles, advanced weapon systems, assistive devices, and others. To ensure responsible innovation in these areas, new conceptual approaches are needed and more attention must be paid to ethical and related aspects. Further advances in automation and control will be required to sustain humanity and the planetary ecosystem, but the social, organizational, and individual impacts of automation must be kept in mind as these advances are pursued.