We live in an automated world, a world where most of the “man-made” objects we see are the result of a machine or robot using computer programming to quickly generate products with great precision.

The days of the artisan or craftsman, whose skills are honed and perfected over years, are mostly behind us, at least as far as mass production is concerned.

It’s one of those things that has happened incrementally over the years as new technologies are adopted. In fact, the word “automation” entered the lexicon in 1946 as a way to describe a trend in the auto industry toward the use of mechanics to replace many of the jobs that had been performed by hand. Auto manufacturers discovered the use of these machines allowed them to reduce labor costs, increase production and make the process more efficient.

But automation has also made it less human, somehow.

There was a time when most things were hand-made and the work of the best of the craftsmen and artisans were admired, sometimes almost revered.

That’s still available, certainly. Many of our locally-owned shops and arts festivals feature goods that have been handcrafted.

It’s hardly ever encountered in our daily purchases, though. That’s why we are particularly pleased when we discover something we assumed was a product of automation is performed by the hands of a human being.

Toby Davis, the subject of this week’s Community Profile, is an example. If you have bought a car in the Golden Triangle over the past several decades and it has pin-striping, the chances are good that the car features Davis’ personal touch. Since 1983, Davis has operated a business that applies pin-striping to cars, a craft he inherited from his father. He works applying pin-striping at car dealerships across north Mississippi.

The precision required to apply the pin-striping is almost mystifying, so we naturally assume some computer program and automated paint-machine is responsible for the work. To learn it is instead the result of one man whose expertise has been gleaned over the decades reminds us of the value of human mastery of a task.

In June, we lost another sun man, Raymond Griggs, whose skill in woodworking and furniture restoration made him a local legend. There didn’t seem to be any object made of wood that Griggs could not rescue or revive. He earned the right to be called a master.

Likewise, when the Columbus Garden Club plans to restore the imposing 152-year-old crypt of Margaret Boyle Munroe at Friendship Cemetery they turned to Tommy Frazier, who had worked as a mason for more than five decades, beginning at age 15. He had learned the craft from his father, whose masonry is on display at the entrance to the cemetery.

We also make note of seamstress Evelyn Rigdon who has spent almost 42 years altering clothes ranging from Air Force uniforms to prom and wedding dresses to everyday work clothes to school uniforms before retiring last year.

Technology moves ahead, methodically, relentlessly. Artificial Intelligence is likely to have an equally profound impact on our society, producing intellectual property that replaces not only our hands but our heads, our hearts.

So take a moment to look at what can be found around us, the minutiae of the work of human hands. It should stir in us an appreciation of the marvelous work still done by human hands.

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.