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[00:00.41] We have the first of two podcasts on automation.

[00:04.92] Now automation, it's got a kind of a scary sound to it, Richard, but it's been going on for some time, hasn't it?

[00:11.30] Yes, robots replacing humans.

[00:14.22] It really started with the first industrial revolution in the 1700s.

[00:19.80] OK. Which was when people started using steam to replace basically the muscles of people.

[00:29.36] OK, can you give an example?

[00:30.96] We're talking about manufacturing.

[00:32.82] Yes, the inventions of things called the spinning jenny and the flying shuttle.

[00:39.72] So we're talking about the cloth and the cotton mills, Richard. Exactly, yes.

[00:43.70] And following on from that, we come to the second industrial revolution, which was all about using electrical power for mass production.

[00:53.80] And we often think of in the early 20th century, the production of the Model T Ford motorcar, for instance, the assembly line.

[01:02.83] Now then we come to the third industrial revolution, and that's more modern using electronics and information technology to automate production.

[01:13.72] OK, can you just give an example of that?

[01:16.38] Well, it's getting machines to do the repetitive jobs like involved in packing and again in manufacturing.

[01:24.08] OK, so again, you could take the car industry, lots of those robots with those hands coming out, putting all the...

[01:32.31] The rivets and screws in, yes.

[01:34.70] And painting the cars as well.

[01:36.56] All those things. OK, so where are we now then, Richard?

[01:40.55] Well, we're continuing with that.

[01:42.94] And actually, we talk about a lot of jobs being lost to these automated processes.

[01:49.05] But they think in the near future and now, 90% of jobs in the garment and footwear industries in Cambodia and Vietnam are at risk of an automated assembly line, so-called so-bots.

[02:04.99] OK. What on earth is a so-bot?

[02:08.44] Well, a robot that does the sewing.

[02:11.36] So they're making the shoes.

[02:13.22] Oh, the robots can make shoes?

[02:16.14] They can make shoes from start to finish now.

[02:18.00] And in fact, those jobs were outsourced to Southeast Asia.

[02:22.52] Now they're coming back. Adidas is building a factory right now that will make shoes.

[02:30.48] And this factory, there's only going to be 160 people working in it.

[02:34.74] Wow. I suppose all of this has got a double-edged sword, Richard, because obviously a lot of goods are going to be cheaper, aren't they?

[02:44.30] But then jobs are at risk. Yes.

[02:46.95] The big advantage is automation means cheaper goods because you're not paying for people to make these things.

[02:56.25] But that means the people are out of work.

[02:58.64] And you can see that, can't you, already in places like the US? Yes.

[03:03.42] A good example is what they call the Rust Belt in the Midwest of America.

[03:09.00] They used to make lots of things in their factories, but now machines are doing it or these jobs are being outsourced to other countries.

[03:18.03] So it's not from lack of funds that these factories are just laying there and rusting, literally.

[03:24.67] It's because machines are doing the work.

[03:27.33] Better and cheaper. Hmm.

[03:29.45] So that sounds like worrying times then.

[03:33.17] It is worrying times.

[03:34.77] But in the future, it's not just going to be manufacturing jobs that are going to be lost.

[03:40.08] The service industry is next.

[03:43.00] OK. So for the next podcast, we'll be looking at the future.