• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Startup claims it's created a robot that entirely replaces fast-food kitchen staff

Status
Not open for further replies.

paparazzo

Member
As if Americans haven't lost enough jobs.

Yup, and not only that but many of them are immigrants who can't do much else. When I worked fast food, almost the entire kitchen staff were from another country (primarily Mexico) and didn't speak much English. Average age was something like 35. Many of them worked a second shift at another fast food restaurant and worked 16-18 hour days on average.
 
Sounds great. No one laments over the loss of needing people to deliver blocks of ice to an ice box, or telephone switchboard operators, or picking and deseeding cotton, or the million other unskilled jobs replaced by technology.
i'd imagine they'll be replacing us relatively soon in the skilled market
 

Surface of Me

I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
Americans should be getting an educate and looking at jobs that require higher skills and more challenging not aiming for the burger flipping jobs
Just thought I'd point that out, apologies if your first language isn't English, but if it is you can surely see the funny.

And maybe people were laid off and had to take these jobs to have any source of income. Maybe they are young people trying to help pay for their college education.
 
-- What's hilarious is that you can take entire sections of Kaczynski's manifesto and read them with a totally straight face now. Eerily prescient in parts.

There's a great Wired article exploring the idea of a technological singularity, "Why the future doesn't need us", where the author explores how people reading parts of the manifesto find it to make some reasonable arguments, and then are shocked to learn who wrote it afterwards.

THE NEW LUDDITE CHALLENGE

First let us postulate that the computer scientists succeed in developing intelligent machines that can do all things better than human beings can do them. In that case presumably all work will be done by vast, highly organized systems of machines and no human effort will be necessary. Either of two cases might occur. The machines might be permitted to make all of their own decisions without human oversight, or else human control over the machines might be retained.

If the machines are permitted to make all their own decisions, we can't make any conjectures as to the results, because it is impossible to guess how such machines might behave. We only point out that the fate of the human race would be at the mercy of the machines. It might be argued that the human race would never be foolish enough to hand over all the power to the machines. But we are suggesting neither that the human race would voluntarily turn power over to the machines nor that the machines would willfully seize power. What we do suggest is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines' decisions. As society and the problems that face it become more and more complex and machines become more and more intelligent, people will let machines make more of their decisions for them, simply because machine-made decisions will bring better results than man-made ones. Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won't be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide.

On the other hand it is possible that human control over the machines may be retained. In that case the average man may have control over certain private machines of his own, such as his car or his personal computer, but control over large systems of machines will be in the hands of a tiny elite - just as it is today, but with two differences. Due to improved techniques the elite will have greater control over the masses; and because human work will no longer be necessary the masses will be superfluous, a useless burden on the system. If the elite is ruthless they may simply decide to exterminate the mass of humanity. If they are humane they may use propaganda or other psychological or biological techniques to reduce the birth rate until the mass of humanity becomes extinct, leaving the world to the elite. Or, if the elite consists of soft-hearted liberals, they may decide to play the role of good shepherds to the rest of the human race. They will see to it that everyone's physical needs are satisfied, that all children are raised under psychologically hygienic conditions, that everyone has a wholesome hobby to keep him busy, and that anyone who may become dissatisfied undergoes "treatment" to cure his "problem." Of course, life will be so purposeless that people will have to be biologically or psychologically engineered either to remove their need for the power process or make them "sublimate" their drive for power into some harmless hobby. These engineered human beings may be happy in such a society, but they will most certainly not be free. They will have been reduced to the status of domestic animals.1
 
Just thought I'd point that out, apologies if your first language isn't English, but if it is you can surely see the funny.

And maybe people were laid off and had to take these jobs to have any source of income. Maybe they are young people trying to help pay for their college education.

Maybe society should pay for their college education?
 

VariantX

Member
Just thought I'd point that out, apologies if your first language isn't English, but if it is you can surely see the funny.

And maybe people were laid off and had to take these jobs to have any source of income. Maybe they are young people trying to help pay for their college education.


This. You got to start somewhere in life. If you automate all the low skill jobs like at fast food joints, you cut the economy off at its knees and leave the next generation of people and those down on their luck with no way of building their own future.
 

Anatopism

Neo Member
If we don't need people to make burgers anymore, why the hell should we keep those jobs around for those people to do something unnecessary? I don't get all this moaning over lost jobs. As time goes on things become obsolete, why act as if it is some offense to make it so something is no longer necessary?

The solution is not to get stuck in the past, but to adjust society. If you have a problem with the way capitalism works, then push for change to that, not for measures to hide the failings of capitalism.
 

Anatopism

Neo Member
Maybe society should pay for their college education?

Seriously, this. If people are so concerned about their college education, why not just pay for it with increased taxes? After all, the other solution involves telling a company that they can't use the most efficient method and you're making them pay for it anyway.
 
Yeah, just like digital delivery has made products cheaper because they don't have to worry about shipping and packaging...

Not trying to sound snarky, but even without the added cost of a staff I don't imagine any fast food chain will pass the savings on to us. They'll just justify the cost by saying the machine requires constant maintenance.
Humans require less maintenance. We will go back to them. Offer them $8/hr with no health insurance or benefits... PROFIT.

edit: oh wait, we already have that... :| It is kind of sick how much we lack value on most humans life, but some humans are "indispensable".
 

Darkkn

Member
This kind of thing is inevitable and is only going to happen in more places faster than ever. Fundamentally it's good that we find ways of doing things more efficiently, but i don't really look forward for my ~45 years of employment to come, so much headache coming our way.

I wish i was born after we had sorted out this post-scarcity thing...
 

xbhaskarx

Member
Ketchup-Squirting-Robot-Has-A-lot-Of-Issues.gif

Now I want one of these...
 

fritolay

Member
Low wage jobs like these are supposed to be an entry into the workforce for 16-20 year olds. Fortunately, due to our sparkling economy, they are also jobs for people with families to feed. Sigh.

Yet there are jobs in the farming and other labor intensive type jobs that are not filled, and they can't fill because people don't want to do hard work.
 

andycapps

Member
Just imagine when they put touch screens in all fast food restaurants for people to order their own food. Then there will be no employees but a manager or someone to handle questions, empty the trash and keep the machines stocked. Part of the reality of the Jetsons will have arrived.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
This kind of thing is inevitable and is only going to happen in more places faster than ever. Fundamentally it's good that we find ways of doing things more efficiently, but i don't really look forward for my ~45 years of employment to come, so much headache coming our way.

I wish i was born after we had sorted out this post-scarcity thing...

Just read a great book on this subject (sorta) called Whole New Mind, I recommend anyone check it out.
 

Anatopism

Neo Member
You didn't get the joke. Many people were saying Romney was kind of robotic... geddit?

....
.......

Robotic?

That's all I had.

Oh I see XD

I just assumed it wasn't too far fetched someone would go with the idea that Romney is the only one who would allow it since it's bad for people with less money XP
 

FyreWulff

Member
I've talked to a couple of engineers in the last little while, one who specifically is working in the field of automation - some of the stuff they said is really interesting, and if I were to highlight the most interesting thing they said to me it would be basically, that robots are getting cheaper and cheaper, to the point that it's going to be silly to not have robots working in manual labour for your company pretty soon.

I worked for a temp agency once. Manual labor 95% of the time, in various places.

Know what my most pointless job was? A factory bakery (they were making cinnamon rolls that day). Know what I did? I took empty trays from one belt and put them on the belt into the industrial washer so they could be used again. I took them from the upper belt here, and onto the belt on the left. the X is where I was standing.

CfBFX.png


10$ an hour. For a task that could be easily automated, not only by better design but would also save someone's back (these trays were fairly heavy). The job only existed because of politics, not because it made any sense. Nobody is weeping for the horse stable guys when they're driving their cars around.
 
Do as many students (percent, obviously) go to college/university over there?

USA
The 2006 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau found that 19.5 percent of the population had attended college but had no degree, 7.4 percent held an associate's degree, 17.1 percent held a bachelor's degree, and 9.9 percent held a graduate or professional degree.

vs
Sweden
Among those that turned 24 years of age last year, 43.6 percent on average had studied at a university. There are still more women than men that enroll, 51.6 percent compared to 36.0 percent.

Yep.
 

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
Oh I see XD

I just assumed it wasn't too far fetched someone would go with the idea that Romney is the only one who would allow it since it's bad for people with less money XP

Completely unrelated to what you are saying, but I just found my old copy of Ogre Battle 64 at my moms place. It was all busted though :(.
 

Anatopism

Neo Member
Completely unrelated to what you are saying, but I just found my old copy of Ogre Battle 64 at my moms place. It was all busted though :(.

I kick myself for being a kid that just decided to just rent it at the time... But hey I also went and got a Wii and there's the virtual console XD

Loved the game...
 
Seriously, this. If people are so concerned about their college education, why not just pay for it with increased taxes? After all, the other solution involves telling a company that they can't use the most efficient method and you're making them pay for it anyway.

Hard to do when the ruling generation had their college fees taken care of. They're more worried about their homes that are underwater and their credit card bills rather than helping out the generation behind them.

Don't privatize social security and medicare for us, do that to the younger generation and have them pay for both!
 

grumble

Member
I'm concerned by this.

1. People lose their jobs as they are replaced by capital.
2. People are out of income, so they can be repurposed to create more technology and capital.
3. People are not reallocated efficiently, and there ends up being a downside in demand.
4. Downside in demand drives more cuts.
5. More cuts cause more downside in demand.
6. Economic collapse.
 

Anatopism

Neo Member
Hard to do when the ruling generation had their college fees taken care of. They're more worried about their homes that are underwater and their credit card bills rather than helping out the generation behind them.

Don't privatize social security and medicare for us, do that to the younger generation and have them pay for both!

True, but the thing is I'm saying people's concerns seem to be misplaced, for those who are concerned about the loss of jobs. I doubt the older generation cares to help much either way.
 
Saving jobs by stopping progress won't do anything for us in the long run. If anything it will just let the world pass us by. The more we force people to train for more skilled jobs, the less we have to worry about low skilled people not having jobs. It's not like fast food is some dream job that would result in a real social loss. Of course for this to work, we should also subsidize this training or you get a chicken and egg scenario where people need training, but training costs money and they have no way of getting any.

This is the way of the future. Things are becoming increasingly complex in technological fields. You no longer get individuals that can completely dominate and revolutionize an entire field. You get a bunch of individuals that dominate subsets of various fields. We need more people to keep moving forward.

It's not like we have a shortage of problems to solve. Lots and lots of manual labour could be generated for implementing grid level power storage using liquid metal batteries (google it) and then creating and maintaining the wind and solar farms to feed such a system. Mind you, you then lose jobs at power plants, but such is the way of life. Keep moving forward or get left behind.
 
I'm concerned by this.

1. People lose their jobs as they are replaced by capital.
2. People are out of income, so they can be repurposed to create more technology and capital.
3. People are not reallocated efficiently, and there ends up being a downside in demand.
4. Downside in demand drives more cuts.
5. More cuts cause more downside in demand.
6. Economic collapse.

Having more technology is going to mean fewer and fewer jobs in the future however there are two outcomes to this.

1. Society realizes this and becomes more socialistic in nature, where the rich have to pay a lot more in taxes so that the majority can live relatively comfortably and they are able to pursue their passions. Life gets better.

2. Capitalism fights harder to maintain itself... people go hungry and starve, we return to the dark ages for anyone who is not rich enough to sustain themselves.
 

Anatopism

Neo Member
Having more technology is going to mean fewer and fewer jobs in the future however there are two outcomes to this.

1. Society realizes this and becomes more socialistic in nature, where the rich have to pay a lot more in taxes so that the majority can live relatively comfortably and they are able to pursue their passions. Life gets better.

2. Capitalism fights harder to maintain itself... people go hungry and starve, we return to the dark ages for anyone who is not rich enough to sustain themselves.

Yeah, this is how I'm thinking of it.

My concern from earlier is that people seem to be going for the second option instead of the first. They go for a short term solution, keeping the jobs in place, when what we need is a longer term solution that acknowledges that in the future more and more jobs may become obsolete and how things are run in our society has to change to accommodate that.
 
My concern from earlier is that people seem to be going for the second option instead of the first. They go for a short term solution, keeping the jobs in place, when what we need is a longer term solution that acknowledges that in the future more and more jobs may become obsolete and how things are run in our society has to change to accommodate that.

This is happening... it's going to get worse before it gets better but optimistically see us ending up on number 1.
 

Futureman

Member
You should come to Canada. Fast food here looks much better than the stuff on the right. Not as good as the photoshops, but much better than what you guys get.

the lefts really aren't photoshops. Just very carefully set up studio photographs. Probably some PS.

and yea, fast food doesn't look as bad on the right in the US either. Definitely exaggerated.
 
Having more technology is going to mean fewer and fewer jobs in the future however there are two outcomes to this.

1. Society realizes this and becomes more socialistic in nature, where the rich have to pay a lot more in taxes so that the majority can live relatively comfortably and they are able to pursue their passions. Life gets better.

2. Capitalism fights harder to maintain itself... people go hungry and starve, we return to the dark ages for anyone who is not rich enough to sustain themselves.

#2 seems waaaaaaaaayyyyyy more likely to happen
 

TxdoHawk

Member
This will only get worse, hence why I tell people: If you can concievably imagine a robot doing your job some day, you better have a Plan B for your career path. If you can easily imagine a robot doing your job, get your ass to a skilled position, post haste.

I would like to speak to the manager.

PLEASE PROVIDE YOUR GREVIANCE, LESSER MEAT-BASED LIFE FORM.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom