the.com/mechanization
Teaching muscle work to machines, then wondering where everyone's muscles went.
means The process of replacing human or animal labor with machines to do the work instead.
from Built from 'mechanize,' which traces back to Greek 'mēkhanē' — a contraption or device, the same root that gives us 'machine' and, fittingly, 'mechanical.' The '-ize' and '-ation' endings are standard Latin-via-French machinery for turning a noun into 'the act of doing X,' bolted on as factories themselves were being bolted together in the industrial era.
- origin point
- cotton gin and steam engines started the exodus from fields
- farm labor
- US farm workforce dropped from 40% to under 2%
- dark irony
- made food abundant, then made the makers unemployed
- next chapter
- automation is mechanization's sequel, now coming for brains too