I think they are right, at least for a long time. I'm not a luddite, but every time I hear people talk about how everything from laying bricks to flipping burg

I think they are right, at least for a long time. I'm not a luddite, but every time I hear people talk about how everything from laying bricks to flipping burgers to landscaping will quickly become automated I have the following thought: Humans are amazingly versatile, and amazingly cheap. If I'm making, say, peanut butter, automation makes sense. I'll put up millions of dollars to leverage large-scale automation technologies (mixers, conveyors, etc) because of volume and consistency. The smaller the scale, the better advantage humans have, and will for a long time. Even if a burger-flipping robot existed today, it wouldn't have a great ROI compared to the ongoing cost of labor. A restaurant just doesn't make enough burgers for automation to be cost-effective yet. That is why most automation has occurred at centralized points of supply chains, and why a patty that enters a McDonalds is already the product of automation. Someday, small scale automation technologies will have reached a low enough price point, and an effective versatility that we won't need humans to lay bricks or flip burgers. My bet is that occurs when the components (including software) of such a robot become commoditized and modularized far beyond what they are today.