Industrial Revolutions and Robots

The concept of robot was first used in a theatre play written by Karel Capek in 1921 (Barutquoglu 2001: 1). Robot can be named as machines that have the ability to perceive, learn, plan and act in order to interact with their environment (Gok 2019).

Although robotization seems to have increased rapidly over the last two decades, it is essentially the last part of a much longer process/evolution. Robotization is the last point of the ongoing stages since the First Industrial Revolution. The foundation of the First Industrial Revolution is based on the invention of the steam engine by Thomas Newcomen in England in 1712. The use of the steam engine invented by Newcomen in the textile industry is called the First Industrial Revolution. The production that was previously carried out on weaving looms was quitted, and machine production was started after the First Industrial Revolution. Upon including the machinery in production, iron and steel and textile production increased, while overproduction has accumulated significant capital in industrializing countries. In the same period, the development of railway networks also caused the effect of the revolution to spread and further increase in production (Alqin 2016: 20).

The mechanization of production after the First Industrial Revolution and the continuous advancement of technology in the following years paved the way for the Second Industrial Revolution. For this reason, the Second Industrial Revolution that occurred between 1840 and 1870 is also known as the technological revolution. With the development of technology, the development of transportation networks, the provision of raw materials in a shorter time and the provision of access to distant markets are due to the effects of the Second Industrial Revolution.

Two world wars and the 1929 Economic Depression in the first half of the twen­tieth century slowed down the technological developments, but in the 1950s, digital technology started to develop and the foundations of the Third Industrial Revolution were laid. Computer and digital production technologies started to be used in produc­tion, and technological small household appliances started to be used in homes. In other words, with the development of computer and information technologies, mech­anization leaving the factories and taking its place in daily life also coincides with this period (EBSO 2015: 6).

With the technology that has remarkably changed and developed in the last decade, discourses of the transition to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0^[12], have started to emerge, because the machines managing themselves and their production processes without the need for manpower show that we have gone beyond the Third Industrial Revolution and passed to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. With the Fourth Industrial Revolution, systems that require serious technology such as robots leaving factories and entering daily life, cloud technologies, big data and cyber-physical systems started to be made and used. However, these developing technologies bring some problems with them (EBSO 2015: 7).

The production style that changed with the First Industrial Revolution mechanized the workforce to a great extent and caused a decrease in the need for manpower, leaving workers unemployed for a long time, especially in the agricultural field (Kuςukkalay 1997: 62). It can be predicted that a similar process can be repeated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, because the use of mechanization to a large extent and the intensive use of robots in production and in daily life may leave employees unemployed in the future, as was the case in First Industrial Revolution.

According to the studies of the World Economic Forum, within the next 5 years, too many working people face the possibility of unemployment due to the increase in the inclusion of robots in production. Many companies will reduce the number of people they employ due to the decrease in the need for people in certain occupational groups or such professions will completely disappear. However, there will be profes­sions that are emerging or developing due to the developing technology. These data were obtained as a result of the survey conducted by the World Economic Forum on 371 companies. World Economic Forum researchers evaluated the results by taking into account the possibility of unemployment due to technological transforma­tion, as well as conditions such as climate changes and natural resources constraints (WEF 2016: 50). Occupational groups expected to shrink according to the results of this research: office and administration, manufacturing, construction and mining, painting, design, entertainment, sports and media, law, assembly, and maintenance and repair. New professions predicted to be born or professions predicted to develop are education sector, computer and mathematics, sales and management, architecture and engineering, trade and financial transactions (WEF 2016: 11-12).

Considering the report of the World Economic Forum, a similar unemployment problem that occurred in the First Industrial Revolution seems likely to emerge in terms of our recent past. Especially, the technological transformation experienced with the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the signal of innovation and change to a great extent. Because robots may appear in many different areas in daily life. However, certain issues have begun to be discussed around the world since they will be used intensively in production. As a matter of fact, the starting, development and comple­tion periods of the industrial revolutions have been shorter with each new revolution. While the first two revolutions completed these processes within a period of nearly a century, the Third Industrial Revolution developed and completed in a relatively short time. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, on the other hand, radically changed the production facilities and daily life activities in a very short time compared to other revolutions.

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