Hey, you know how plutocrats love to smugly threaten that if food service employees keep seeking a living wage, they'll be replaced with robots? Yeah, about that: a restaurant in Guangzhou, China, tried it, and it didn't work out so good. You're familiar with the phrase "never trust a skinny cook?" We're thinking maybe it should be amended to include "and never trust any food service worker whose favorite meal consists of
I'd be willing to bet money that they will, because it's such a goddamn easy function to build in, & marketing fucks love that kind of bullshit so much.
1. On the bad news side, wait twenty years. Think about how robotics has advanced since 1996 and extrapolate.
2. On the less bad news side, competent semi-autonomous robots will remain expensive pieces of capital equipment, because silicon is cheap but iron is expensive. For most retail enterprises (food or other), it won't make economic sense to replace humans with expensive capital goods. To take a painful example, in a business downturn, you cannot lay off, or cut the hours of, a piece of capital equipment. You already paid for it, and if you bought it on credit, you still have to make the payments. The time to break-even is likely to remain quite long.
3. On the gripping hand side, I suspect that customers (who are human) will in many cases prefer establishments with live workers, because we do actually get some enjoyment from the human interaction. Maybe the exception will be fast food places, which are already pretty indistinguishable from complicated vending machines. But these places will run into consideration (2) above.
Nevertheless, a la larga, the issue will not be determined by robotic performance.
"Joanna! How could you do a thing like that? How could you do a thing like that? How could you do a thing like that? When I was just going to give you coffee. When I was just going to give you coffee! When I was just going to give you coffee! I thought we were friends! I thought we were friends! I was just going to give you coffee! I was just going to give you coffee! I thought we were friends... I thought we were friends... I thought we were friends. How could you *do* a thing like that? I thought we were friends."oh Joanna.... always stirring up trouble....
Yeah, anyone who smugly says workers will be replaced with robots will be whining for them back the first time they try to complain about the meal and find themselves confronted with an entirely passive, unconcerned robot that won't give them a free meal, won't discount their meal, and then plays back to them their exact order proving they're just a dickweed.
I'm willing to double Frank's bet, and add in the potential for the robot to malfunction and answer every question or comment or just repeat every 15 seconds, "HI FOLKS! I'M SERVER643, YOUR HELPFUL SERVING ROBOT, AND I'LL BE TAKING CARE OF YOU TODAY!"
<sigh> I was kind of trying to make a joke but if I have to explain it, then I've made a BAD joke and that's on me. I *would* love to discuss robotics, SMART cars, SMART highways, etc., with you on an open comments piece if you're willing and don't mind the inevitable naive/stupid questions.
I've always loved this sign.
I'd be willing to bet money that they will, because it's such a goddamn easy function to build in, & marketing fucks love that kind of bullshit so much.
"It literally makes my head explode."
I'm pretty sure it doesn't - or at least not more than once.
In the rebooted version, they cheated & gave the Daleks the ability to fly, for fucks sake.
Pepper mills?
DIABETES?? BEAN CUP!!https://www.youtube.com/wat...
*APPLAUSE!*
I should watch that movie again.
Huh. I was about a third of the way through that awful song before I realised that one of them is dressed as a prawn.
I think he rather had something like this in mind ..
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
1. On the bad news side, wait twenty years. Think about how robotics has advanced since 1996 and extrapolate.
2. On the less bad news side, competent semi-autonomous robots will remain expensive pieces of capital equipment, because silicon is cheap but iron is expensive. For most retail enterprises (food or other), it won't make economic sense to replace humans with expensive capital goods. To take a painful example, in a business downturn, you cannot lay off, or cut the hours of, a piece of capital equipment. You already paid for it, and if you bought it on credit, you still have to make the payments. The time to break-even is likely to remain quite long.
3. On the gripping hand side, I suspect that customers (who are human) will in many cases prefer establishments with live workers, because we do actually get some enjoyment from the human interaction. Maybe the exception will be fast food places, which are already pretty indistinguishable from complicated vending machines. But these places will run into consideration (2) above.
Nevertheless, a la larga, the issue will not be determined by robotic performance.
And saganaki!
"Joanna! How could you do a thing like that? How could you do a thing like that? How could you do a thing like that? When I was just going to give you coffee. When I was just going to give you coffee! When I was just going to give you coffee! I thought we were friends! I thought we were friends! I was just going to give you coffee! I was just going to give you coffee! I thought we were friends... I thought we were friends... I thought we were friends. How could you *do* a thing like that? I thought we were friends."oh Joanna.... always stirring up trouble....
Yeah, anyone who smugly says workers will be replaced with robots will be whining for them back the first time they try to complain about the meal and find themselves confronted with an entirely passive, unconcerned robot that won't give them a free meal, won't discount their meal, and then plays back to them their exact order proving they're just a dickweed.
I'm willing to double Frank's bet, and add in the potential for the robot to malfunction and answer every question or comment or just repeat every 15 seconds, "HI FOLKS! I'M SERVER643, YOUR HELPFUL SERVING ROBOT, AND I'LL BE TAKING CARE OF YOU TODAY!"
<sigh> I was kind of trying to make a joke but if I have to explain it, then I've made a BAD joke and that's on me. I *would* love to discuss robotics, SMART cars, SMART highways, etc., with you on an open comments piece if you're willing and don't mind the inevitable naive/stupid questions.