Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

World's First Kitchen-Free, Robot-Run Fast-Food Restaurant

foodbeast.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 69 posts

Re: World's First Kitchen-Free, Robot-Run Fast-Food Restaurant

#21

Post by digitalsushi »

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #17
jiggy2011 wrote: post #2

When I was a teenager the most popular part time jobs among my piers were either working in a supermarket or at a fast food place. Lots of supermarkets are starting to replace humans with self-checkouts and things like this will probably become standard in fast food. So how is a teenager supposed to fund his pot habit in 2020?

Learn programming and do some spec work.

I don't know the first thing about statistics, but I know that the set of people reading this website are in a selection problem- everyone here could probably learn to program and go some spec work. For each person here, there are some ratio of other people that cannot do this work. Why they cannot is undefined. Maybe it's as simple as they find it boring or have a low dedication. But I believe it is a fact that there are some number of people who cannot simply ramp up their mental aperture and get a better profession.

Re: World's First Kitchen-Free, Robot-Run Fast-Food Restaurant

#22

Post by alwaysabove »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #10
alwaysabove wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a triumph that we're automating these kind of jobs. Why are we wasting human talent on inane jobs like store checkout or junk food production? Every person in one of those jobs is a wasted mind. If we could put those minds to work on something meaningful think what we could achieve.

True, but of course not all minds are created equal. There is also the risk that they put those minds to work on something that is not so meaningful (e.g crime).

If someone is a fucking idiot, still better to have them say, spend their time in an retirement home talking to and looking after elderly people, than it is to have them feeding groceries to a scanner as some kind of redundant biological link in a machine.

Re: World's First Kitchen-Free, Robot-Run Fast-Food Restaurant

#23

Post by Dove »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #2

When I was a teenager the most popular part time jobs among my piers were either working in a supermarket or at a fast food place. Lots of supermarkets are starting to replace humans with self-checkouts and things like this will probably become standard in fast food. So how is a teenager supposed to fund his pot habit in 2020?

It's 2020. Lots of teenagers don't have jobs and would like them. Someone starts a new business based on the available cheap labor.

Dog poop scooping? Personal couriers? Game testing? Something we haven't thought of because the relevant industry doesn't exist yet?

Economies aren't static. You can always find something useful to do.

Re: World's First Kitchen-Free, Robot-Run Fast-Food Restaurant

#24

Post by alexkus »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #2

When I was a teenager the most popular part time jobs among my piers were either working in a supermarket or at a fast food place. Lots of supermarkets are starting to replace humans with self-checkouts and things like this will probably become standard in fast food. So how is a teenager supposed to fund his pot habit in 2020?

> So how is a teenager supposed to fund his pot habit in 2020?

Learn how to maintain/fix robots.

Re: World's First Kitchen-Free, Robot-Run Fast-Food Restaurant

#25

Post by krapp »

philhippus wrote: post #13
alwaysabove wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a triumph that we're automating these kind of jobs. Why are we wasting human talent on inane jobs like store checkout or junk food production? Every person in one of those jobs is a wasted mind. If we could put those minds to work on something meaningful think what we could achieve.

Now workers can be promoted to tomato feeder, or waste fat disposer - at least until those tasks are also automated.

Yeah, that's the problem with automation isn't it? The point is not to free the mind of the common salaryman from the burden of manual labor but just to free the company of the burden of employees, much less of paying them more to do something else. And when there are no more bottom tier positions left which haven't been filled by a machine or outsourced for a tenth of your salary (to someone who's going to be replaced by a machine themselves in a few years)... too bad for you I guess.

Re: World's First Kitchen-Free, Robot-Run Fast-Food Restaurant

#26

Post by jiggy2011 »

alwaysabove wrote: post #22
jiggy2011 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but of course not all minds are created equal. There is also the risk that they put those minds to work on something that is not so meaningful (e.g crime).

If someone is a fucking idiot, still better to have them say, spend their time in an retirement home talking to and looking after elderly people, than it is to have them feeding groceries to a scanner as some kind of redundant biological link in a machine.

Not sure I would have wanted my late grandmother to be looked after by "a fucking idiot".

Re: World's First Kitchen-Free, Robot-Run Fast-Food Restaurant

#27

Post by bmj »

alwaysabove wrote: post #22
jiggy2011 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but of course not all minds are created equal. There is also the risk that they put those minds to work on something that is not so meaningful (e.g crime).

If someone is a fucking idiot, still better to have them say, spend their time in an retirement home talking to and looking after elderly people, than it is to have them feeding groceries to a scanner as some kind of redundant biological link in a machine.

This is terrible attitude, and it greatly devalues necessary work. Yes, if you are an engineer, you see stocking grocery store shelves as a technical problem to be solved, but other folks look at it as a way to make a rather meager living. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone can do white collar labor for a reasonable middle class salary.

Don't get me wrong, I think some work certainly could be automated, but at the same time, we need to consider the human cost of automating that work. A glib response of "learn how to write specs" or referring to people that do some tasks as "fucking idiots" does very little to advance the conversation.

Re: World's First Kitchen-Free, Robot-Run Fast-Food Restaurant

#28

Post by jkeel »

Dove wrote: post #23
jiggy2011 wrote: post #2

When I was a teenager the most popular part time jobs among my piers were either working in a supermarket or at a fast food place. Lots of supermarkets are starting to replace humans with self-checkouts and things like this will probably become standard in fast food. So how is a teenager supposed to fund his pot habit in 2020?

It's 2020. Lots of teenagers don't have jobs and would like them. Someone starts a new business based on the available cheap labor. Dog poop scooping? Personal couriers? Game testing? Something we haven't thought of because the relevant industry doesn't exist yet? Economies aren't static. You can always find something useful to do.

I agree. Even now (2012 - almost 2013) there are still lots of services needed but when I was a teenager I unfortunately kept looking for a type of job that my friends had instead of looking for a need to fill (I eventually did land a very different job though working alongside field workers).

Today I've seen adults in their 30's and 40's jump out of the IT industry to start their own business scooping dog poop out of back yards and making enough money to live on. Same thing with cleaning swimming pools. There are lots of services they could provide.

Re: World's First Kitchen-Free, Robot-Run Fast-Food Restaurant

#29

Post by Dove »

jkeel wrote: post #28
Dove wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 2020. Lots of teenagers don't have jobs and would like them. Someone starts a new business based on the available cheap labor. Dog poop scooping? Personal couriers? Game testing? Something we haven't thought of because the relevant industry doesn't exist yet? Economies aren't static. You can always find something useful to do.

I agree. Even now (2012 - almost 2013) there are still lots of services needed but when I was a teenager I unfortunately kept looking for a type of job that my friends had instead of looking for a need to fill (I eventually did land a very different job though working alongside field workers). Today I've seen adults in their 30's and 40's jump out of the IT industry to start their own business scooping dog poop out o…

Indeed. The out-of-work teenager doesn't necessarily need to start the business himself--someone will see the opportunity--but it is helpful if he can. I think it is a better mindset to try to be useful than to seek a job.

Re: World's First Kitchen-Free, Robot-Run Fast-Food Restaurant

#30

Post by columbo »

mertd wrote: post #5
jiggy2011 wrote: post #2

When I was a teenager the most popular part time jobs among my piers were either working in a supermarket or at a fast food place. Lots of supermarkets are starting to replace humans with self-checkouts and things like this will probably become standard in fast food. So how is a teenager supposed to fund his pot habit in 2020?

In 2020, they will probably be able to grab some weed from the family pantry. On a different note, I am curious to see how economy and society will shape up once most low entry barrier jobs are automated.

Well Stanislaw Lem's Memiors of a Space Traveler (24th Voyage) suggests we will all be flattened into glass discs and placed in random locations over the planet.

Source: http://books.google.com/books?id=1DNVzphAHD0C&lpg=PA24&#...

Post reply on HN