I worked in the automation industry for about 6 years. I originally started out as just needing a job, but ended up attempting to get an electrical apprenticeship to gain a transferable skill to move to another country. I ended up leaving both the automation industry and the trades in general for a number of reasons.

In regards to automation, one of those reasons is that I believe automation and a lot of our technology which is made through automation is completely unsustainable. It’s also hard for me to separate the unsustainable nature of automation from capitalism. Automation requires so much extraction from other parts of the world to build and maintain. Not only is there a huge demand for metal to build the automation line itself for robots, fencing/safety, electricity, piping, and other structures related to an automation line, there’s a huge amount of plastic required for everything electronic.

Maintenance is also a huge issue. Things that move tend to wear down and break down over time. Everything eventually needs to be replaced. That’s more metal, plastic, grease, water and whatever else is required to run that line. A constant need to extract materials from one place to another. To me that is just the same as how capitalism works. Exploiting and extracting from one area for a resource and moving it to another area. Profits will be made. Then something will be done with that resource. Then more profit will be made and eventually it’ll end up in a junk yard somewhere.

There’s also a depressing amount of plastic involved. Every electronic requires plastic protection while being shipped because water and moisture don’t play well with electronics. Every cable is coated in plastic because electricity loves metal and there’s metal pretty much everywhere in the automation line. Sensors, electronics, computers, safety. Plastic. In the back of my mind, I can’t help but wonder how much progress will stall when people are unable to extract crude oil for all the plastics required for anything electronic.

My time in automation has made me believe today that we can’t have all the luxuries of modern technology without the “innovative” race to the bottom capitalism is currently trying to achieve. That we only got this technologically advanced because someone wanted to exploit a certain aspect of technology for their own personal gains. Innovations that are built on the ideas of exploitation. Today I can no longer in my mind separate the deep connection between computers, automation, and capitalism.

At this point, I am a bit overwhelmed by what’s happening with everything that I don’t even know what direction we can go from here. In order to resist, we still must use the technology provided by capitalism to organize ourselves. Like a drug, we are dependent and it’s an aspect of technology that fills me with frustration and confusion.

Personally, I do think it would benefit people as a whole to reconnect with nature in a sustainable way. Reconnect with the indigenous peoples from around the world and learn their knowledge of the lands. Learn to ween ourselves off from heavy technology dependence but still find a balance with technology that doesn’t depend so heavily on exploiting materials from outside our living areas. I think if we continue to use the tools provided by capitalism, we will continue to be addicted.