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

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

#31

Post by pcurve »

Growlzler wrote: post #27

Robots can't taste. Something that no one really wants to take on for a number of reasons the first being that we haven't a clue how it works. Variables in a Caesar Salad occupy wide spreads. Blending taste is still an art that most Chefs have trouble achieving as will the machine intelligence that conquers taste. Wondering how machine intelligence will handle hunger pangs caused by the sudden thought of a Caesar Sal…

If there is one thing that a robot can do more consistently and better than a human is tossing salad using pre-sorted ingredients.

However, figuring out what makes a delicious recipe is something machines can't do. yet.

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

#32

Post by biot »

mjevans wrote: post #4

If there is a tax (I believe there should be) on automation then my opinion is that it should be based on the profit and reduced by the percentage of 'traditional' (role specific) job hours that remain; counting service personnel the same as bus-boys/janitorial services. If the profit is under a given percentage then there shouldn't be any tax assessed.

How much are you personally willing to pay in tax for your refrigerator/freezer, your dishwashing machine, and your laundry machines?

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

#33

Post by dannyw »

Growlzler wrote: post #28
greglindahl wrote: post #10

My local coffee place has humans who operate an espresso machine, while Starbucks has baristas who push a button, and there are vending machines that produces espresso without having an operator. None of this excites a moral panic. Kitchen labor-saving devices have been being invented for hundreds of thousands of years. What's new? Think about wheat. Wheat used to be ground in stone mills operated by oxen or wind or…

Grinding wheat left byproducts of the stone burrs in the wheat product. This ground the enamel off peoples teeth leaving them nearly toothless by their mid-thirties. It wasn't till recently that "milling" became the norm in flour production. The wheat berry is not crushed in the milling process but is first burst and torn successively into every finer pieces. Some people have never tasted freshly milled flour made in…

Could you cite a source for grinding wheat leaving sufficient stone burr particles resulting in enamel damage? I could not find a source via Google.

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

#34

Post by greglindahl »

statictype wrote: post #29
greglindahl wrote: post #10

My local coffee place has humans who operate an espresso machine, while Starbucks has baristas who push a button, and there are vending machines that produces espresso without having an operator. None of this excites a moral panic. Kitchen labor-saving devices have been being invented for hundreds of thousands of years. What's new? Think about wheat. Wheat used to be ground in stone mills operated by oxen or wind or…

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).

The vending machine still has many humans involved: building it involved humans, maintaining it involves humans. The difference is that the button is pushed by the customer. That's the same amount of human labor, actually, it's just that the customer isn't paying someone else for the button press.

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

#35

Post by greglindahl »

dannyw wrote: post #33
Growlzler wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grinding wheat left byproducts of the stone burrs in the wheat product. This ground the enamel off peoples teeth leaving them nearly toothless by their mid-thirties. It wasn't till recently that "milling" became the norm in flour production. The wheat berry is not crushed in the milling process but is first burst and torn successively into every finer pieces. Some people have never tasted freshly milled flour made in…

Could you cite a source for grinding wheat leaving sufficient stone burr particles resulting in enamel damage? I could not find a source via Google.

Dental health and disease in ancient Egypt

http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v206/n8/full/sj.bdj.2009.3...

I got there by googling [wheat enamel damage -gluten stone], there's lots more than just this one article

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

#37

Post by drawkbox »

daveguy wrote: post #17

Until self check-out becomes faster and less obnoxious than having a skilled cashier do the job faster I don't think we need to worry at a large scale. We aren't going to be talking to robot waiters any time soon. If Carl's Jr. puts a glorified soda machine as my fast food interface I'll go to McDonald's where I can give my order in 10 seconds instead of fumbling with a machine for 2 minutes.

If Carl's Jr. puts a glorified soda machine as my fast food interface...

Idiocracy has it right again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW-4LU79qbU

I think lots of automation will exist and already does in our economy in manufacturing, technology and many areas. However some automation isn't as desired by the consumer directly and ends up making more work like this salad bot.

First off, unless it is self cleaning it seems like it will take at least one attendant to refill and clean it.

Secondly, it looks like a food poisoning haven as lettuce is many times the culprit there.

Next, it looks like it will waste tons of product, which will be left in multiple days and goes back to the food poising or general bad ingredients.

The maintenance, cleaning, inventory/ingredient management and more make this probably not that great of an idea unless it is pumping out salads in a factory, as a vending machine it seems to be automation just to automate. I personally would not want a salad out of a vending machine.

Kiosk ordering is something that automation is probably good for, making the salad though on demand? Probably not.

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

#38

Post by geofree »

pcurve wrote: post #31
Growlzler wrote: post #27

Robots can't taste. Something that no one really wants to take on for a number of reasons the first being that we haven't a clue how it works. Variables in a Caesar Salad occupy wide spreads. Blending taste is still an art that most Chefs have trouble achieving as will the machine intelligence that conquers taste. Wondering how machine intelligence will handle hunger pangs caused by the sudden thought of a Caesar Sal…

If there is one thing that a robot can do more consistently and better than a human is tossing salad using pre-sorted ingredients. However, figuring out what makes a delicious recipe is something machines can't do. yet.

Having machines come up with delicious recipes isn't that far off: https://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Cooking-Chef-Watson-Innovat...

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

#39

Post by sethhochberg »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #30
Growlzler wrote: post #27

Robots can't taste. Something that no one really wants to take on for a number of reasons the first being that we haven't a clue how it works. Variables in a Caesar Salad occupy wide spreads. Blending taste is still an art that most Chefs have trouble achieving as will the machine intelligence that conquers taste. Wondering how machine intelligence will handle hunger pangs caused by the sudden thought of a Caesar Sal…

I think you're romanticizing the concept of food preparation a bit much. You don't need to be able to taste, or feel hunger, to cook a good meal or choose a wine. I fully expect that a machine could not only do so, but ultimately do so more consistently than any but the most skilled of humans.

I fear such a thing would lead to Starbucksization of food and beverage production. As mentioned in plenty of other comments here, Starbucks baristas mostly just push a button to get a shot of espresso from one of their machines. They optimize for consistency and "good enough" - and indeed the machine pulls the same shot, every time, from beans which are over-roasted for consistency and good enough for mass consumption and a predictable experience across thousands of stores.

But that isn't what makes food and drink interesting. I enjoy going to a place because they pull a particularly great espresso shot and use it to prepare a macchiato in a way that I like according to proportions of milk and espresso that I think taste best... or a bar which has a particularly great wine collection according to my tastes... or a restaurant which has a fun twist on on a french classic which I like more than the original. Of course, each of these establishments could have a custom version of whatever algorithm you're envisioning which picks the perfect wines, pulls the perfect espresso shots, or prepares the perfect meal - but will they? Or will the platform that enables such extreme automation also enable such extreme commodification, like Starbucks vs a boutique coffee shop? I think it would.

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

#40

Post by greeneggs »

true_tuna wrote: post #5

Yes. All the jobs. Drivers, luggage handlers. The salad cook is just another in the long line of manual jobs that can be done quicker, better, cheaper by a robot. So now what? What job do we guide our children into? What jobs are left as the fall through for kids who decline formal training? I don't know, but we need to answer that question quickly.

Few people are guiding their kids to be salad cooks. But for cooks, this is probably good news. If they can do their jobs more efficiently, there should be more restaurants, and more jobs.
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