Of course, the age of the machine is not something that can be marked by a singular day, year or even decade in terms of when humanity turned to machines. Instead, it’s evolved along with side humankind’s eagerness to lessen the burden of jobs in manufacturing cars, mining ore, and harvesting crops and almost every job in between.
Let’s face it, the computer that this column is written on is mostly a machine, and that is a massive upgrade from the Underwood typewriter I used when I began my journalism career. That typewriter was a big upgrade from the days of pen and paper and hot lead typesetting in the newspaper business.
So turning to machines is not new. What is new is turning to machines with a level of artificial intelligence, although even that is now a decades-old evolution. Assembly line production has relied on computer-controlled machines for years, and those can be considered early A.I. machines of a fashion. Now we are taking the next step, creating autonomous machines. It’s one thing to have an assembly line robot attached to its spot on the line. It is quite another when the robot can wander around on its own.
However, the farming sector is always eager to look to new technology that has benefits they can monetize, looking rather closely at autonomous machines. Think about a tractor or combine in the field running 24-hours a day, maybe powered by the sun, with no wages for a driver required. It sounds futuristic, but in this case, the future may be now.
A recent story at www.producer.com revealed just how close it might be. The article detailed, “more than 350 autonomous combines harvested 400,000 acres of Russian crop in 2020, bringing in 720,000 tonnes of grain. Equipping so many New Holland, Deere, Claas and Russian combines with the Cognitive Agro Pilot proved that big-acre autonomous field machinery has finally moved beyond the prototype stage. Cognitive Agro Pilot is a joint project developed by Moscow-based Sberbank and Cognitive Technologies group.”
This sort of news should create interest among grain farmers, especially those with big acres to cover, and issues finding qualified operators to hire. It seems only a matter of time, measured in scant years before the next age of the machine takes over farm fields.
- Calvin Daniels
Comment on this article at lmtimes.ca/calvin
Disclaimer: opinions expressed are those of the writer.
