Living through the Waves of Change: A Personal Narrative Across Industrial Revolutions
This article is partly a work of Fiction based on Historical Fact. It is written in the first person and is meant to provide insight and perspective into what it was like to live through the changes during the First, Second and Third Industrial Revolutions.
From Hand Skills to Factories
"Before the machines, my days as a hand spinner were defined by the careful rhythm of spindle and thread, a skill passed down to me by my mother, and to her by her mother. It was a good wage and put food on our table.
The arrival of the “spinning jenny” - a hulking machine that could out-spin the quickest of us - brought fear and uncertainty! Jobs dwindled, coins grew scarce, and many in my village, myself included, found ourselves pressed into crowded, noisy factories. Gone was the pride of perfect thread and the freedom of our old work, replaced by tedious hours feeding wool into machines.
Yet, alongside sorrow and worry for our future, I saw glimmers of change. The mills produced more cloth in days than we once did in months, enough for some families to send their children to school or try new trades in town. Though I mourned the loss of our old ways and wondered what price we truly paid for progress, I tried to hold hope that my children, growing up in a world of iron and industry, might find opportunities that my own hands had never known."
The Evolution of Factory
"Years later, I remember when a persons skill meant something in this town! As a machinist, I took pride in every gear I shaped and every engine I set running. My hands knew the weight of steel, the whirr of the wheel, the judgment of eye and touch - these were not things you learned overnight, but through years at the bench. But now, with these assembly lines rolling through the factory, it feels like all that’s worthless each day.
They brought in those new machines, and suddenly, what took me an hour to craft could be stamped out in minutes by a line of men turning the same wrench, tightening the same bolt, day in, day out.
Some of the old hands - good people - were let go, replaced by fellows who didn’t need half our experience. They put me on the line, too; I do the same task, again and again, twelve hours a day. There’s steady pay, sure, and for some, that’s enough reason to stick it out.
My boy landed a job at a desk, minding paperwork for the plant, and maybe he’s lucky for it. But it’s hard not to feel the sting, watching the craft and pride in honest work fade as machine and routine take hold. Still, I hold out hope - America’s changing fast, and maybe there’s a way my family can find its place, even if the old ways are passing."
Digital Dread and Hope
"I’ve spent a good twenty years punching the clock on the factory floor - knew every bolt on the line and every face beside me. Back when I started, there was security in it: you learned the machines, worked hard, and you could count on your pay at week’s end. But then computers started showing up - quiet, blinking, running everything with the press of a button. One day they brought in robots, and bit by bit, people I’d known half my life were let go. The supervisor said these new machines didn’t call in sick, didn’t slow down, didn’t complain.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. Every time they installed another row of computers, I wondered if I’d be next; after all these years, how would I start over? I tried to get the hang of the new equipment, even took night classes, but old hands don’t always take to keyboards like they did to wrenches.
Still, I could see something in it - my niece got a job programming, good pay and clean work that never would’ve existed when I started. Wasn’t all bad. Some days, the quiet hum of robots almost seemed hopeful, like there was a different kind of future waiting - if only a human could find their place in it."
⭐️ Roles of the Future are here already! ⭐️
As we enter into the 4th industrial rEvolution we see a common theme - across each of these is a fever of fear and trepidation, but here we are...still kicking! Over the last 3 years alone there have been at least 15 - 20 new job roles created in and around AI, with a predicted 97 million new jobs entering the market by 2030.
We at Perfectit Group have created a means to pivot organizations into an AI-Centric Target Operating Model that allows for Humans and AI to work together in ways that the business achieves maximum benefit.