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A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

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201–210 of 234 posts

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#201
post #127
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't see many horses at all. That is, the offspring of those working horses certainly doesn't roam about in pastures, to pursue happiness because there are no jobs that require them.

I've read here that the obsolete horses helped bootstrap the pet food industry...

That was not something I needed to know.

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#202

Robots making food will lower the cost of food, giving more people access to better nutrition. This will also free up labor and capital to do other things. Machines helped make farming more productive so humans no longer have to live on farms, and dedicate their lives to the next meal on their table. If we were worried about jobs back then, we would've outlawed tractors and other machines. If we really want to create…

I don't think it will not lower the cost of food. In my opinion, the savings won't go towards pricing, they will go towards the owners' bank accounts (or shareholders). See Foxconn and the whole fleet of robots in their factories.

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#203
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing as humans don't usually taste their coffee before serving, identifying flavour is probably not strictly necessary to the task. And given that the act of making good-enough coffee isn't a very difficult task (given how readily available and quickly trained "baristas" are), and how mechanical the process is already, im not sure there's anything to suggest it isn't do-able. Its more likely a matter of cost and sc…

Smelling is already a form of tasting, just like looking at how it behaves because we humans are really good at combining our senses to get the input we look for, that's why most people usually don't taste the coffee before serving, unless it's smelling/looking funny while brewing. Replicating this with electrical sensors is a pretty complex task we still haven't managed to get working, after all we are not only talk…

You don't actually have to replicate the interaction though, you just need to identify the particular range of smells that people accept, and have the machine capable of detecting it.

Generating a brand new style of good coffee might need the interaction though

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#204
post #88

Why is the UI on these things so atrocious? It took him a number of key presses just to select from a list of 6 and many more to finalize the purchase. Why not have a bunch of large tactile buttons at the bottom of the screen like all normal vending machines do? I don't want to wait in line for 3 minutes while some technophobe tries to figure out how to nagivate a pressure touchscreen with 12 menus deep. It's not his…

Heck, I'm the complete opposite of a technophobe, and I could barely navigate a similar UX trying to get some food and drinks at Newark Int'l Airport. Every table had an iPad with a UI like this. IIRC, I even screwed up part of my order because the UX was so overly complex.

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#205
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The creativity has to happen at the "design" stage. The best restaurants strive for perfect _repeatable_ dishes, and no cook has to improvise with spices or ingredients on a normal shift.

A good cook/chef can take a look at an ingredient or set of ingredients and vary their techniques to produce that 'repeatable' dish. I think you're completely discounting what cooking involves when it's someone with skill and experience, and that's unfortunate.

I'm just saying that the creativity usually is separated from the actual act of preparing a dish in a professional kitchen, robots or not. It lies in the receipt, good techniques, ingredient selection and sourcing. The creative part will always stay in the domain of skilled and experienced humans, no doubt about it.

Mastering a technique might mean constant adoption to changing ingredients and parameters, temperatures, timing etc. That is not fundamentally impossible to teach to a robot.

Massive knowledge, excellent sensory inputs of all kinds, precision motor skills etc are not creativity. Certainly there is a long way for robots to improve before they can handle what a human is able to. But I have no doubt that they will get there sooner or later.

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#206
post #88

Why is the UI on these things so atrocious? It took him a number of key presses just to select from a list of 6 and many more to finalize the purchase. Why not have a bunch of large tactile buttons at the bottom of the screen like all normal vending machines do? I don't want to wait in line for 3 minutes while some technophobe tries to figure out how to nagivate a pressure touchscreen with 12 menus deep. It's not his…

I don't want to wait in line for 3 minutes while some old guy tries to figure out Please rewrite, this is borderline discriminatory and quite offensive. Some "old guys" can be as capable to handle such UI as some "young guys". Disclaimer: half-old guy. [EDIT] thanks for replacing "old guy" with "technophobe".

I actually admire your request and also the new word, that replaced the "old guy". Will try to stick to it.

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to wait in line for 3 minutes while some old guy tries to figure out Please rewrite, this is borderline discriminatory and quite offensive. Some "old guys" can be as capable to handle such UI as some "young guys". Disclaimer: half-old guy. [EDIT] thanks for replacing "old guy" with "technophobe".

Do you really want a world where people pretend not to discriminate?

Fake it till you make it.

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#208
post #93
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YMMV. I was not impressed by the machine - it presented way too many choices and didn't promote the UI to make the process easier than speaking to a human, in my view. Maybe after about 10 times when you've "learned the menu" you might find it easier.

I'd LOVE an automated kiosk (or even person) that let me specify some numeric encoding of my entire order. I always order the same thing at In-n-Out, for example, and would love to say, "Give me a 557-343-901-043" -- or better yet, scan a QR code that had what I want to order. And they have just about the simplest menu ever! (one reason I love them) If I could do that at other fast food restaurants, or Starbucks, whe…

Why not just do what Taco Bell does and have a mobile app for (re)ordering stuff? You can even order ahead of time and just have it ready for pickup/dine-in.

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's different is that the button was being pushed by a human. That human gets paid a salary and earns a living. And that human could presumably choose not to push the button if the expresso machine tries to become sentient (in theory).

That human can, if properly trained and motivated, recognize when the coffee being served isn't coming out right. They can interface with customers and resolve complicated human problems, de-escalating when necessary to find a good outcome. A robot has no way of knowing if the coffee will taste good or contains rat poison. It's just going through the motions. If it serves you a dud drink you can't argue with it, you…

This would be so much easier if we just replaced the consumer with a more efficient AI.
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