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"...in fifty years, do you believe that people will be recognizably human?"
- Greg Bear

Unattended Factory  
  A factory that works entirely automatically, without human guidance.  

This is an early explicit mention of this in science fiction.

"My father's dream! The complete utilization of mechanical power. It's the working out of a model he himself built. A single pressure on a button, and the work of a whole factory begins without anyone to watch or guide it...
Technovelgy from The Hidden Colony, by Otfrid von Hanstein.
Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1935
Additional resources -

Compare to the automated factory from The Peacemongers (1957) by Poul Anderson, which is the first use I know about for this phrase.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Hidden Colony
  More Ideas and Technology by Otfrid von Hanstein
  Tech news articles related to The Hidden Colony
  Tech news articles related to works by Otfrid von Hanstein

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