4 ms·
Humans are, in many ways, in many places, the best, least expensive robot. To me the bottleneck is not technology, it's the labor market. Basic human labor pla
by blamazon 4y ago
Humans are, in many ways, in many places, the best, least expensive robot. To me the bottleneck is not technology, it's the labor market.
Basic human labor planetwide is generally not expensive enough for full automation yet. This is not lost on an HR-heavy company like Amazon that employs over a million humans.
Such an equilibrium is a long way away too. We are systemically undervaluing the life energy of our species, en masse.
- ghaff 4y agoThere are a ton of things that, if labor were arbitrarily expensive, it would be replaced with some combination of: - Robots/automation - Self-service - Poorer service - A lot of people collectively deciding they just just don't need $X if it's going to cost that much Compare the US overall to many places in southeast Asia for example. There is generally a lot more personal service and staffing overall where the labor is cheaper.
- amalcon 4y agoI've heard tell that in some cities with low labor costs, it's cheaper for a disabled person to pay someone to carry them up and down stairs than to rent an apartment with an elevator. That particular robot has been around in more or less its modern form for at least 100 years.
- nicbou 4y ago> A lot of people collectively deciding they just just don't need $X if it's going to cost that much A lot of people decide that it's their God-given right to enjoy a certain service at a certain price, even if it requires exploited labour to achieve. They will actively support legislation that enables this sort of exploitation, because again, this service is too nice to pass on.
- lawrenceyan 4y agoIt's interesting to consider how basic income if implemented, could potentially greatly speed up the development/rollout of robotics in industry.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- noobermin 4y agoI moved to singapore just as the covid measures were loosening last year. Most restaurants are still using QR code menus and web apps to make orders. Each time we get our food, the waiter has to guess which drink and meal belongs to who, or they just leave it on the table and expect you to take it. The apps also make it harder to ask for exceptions to the menu (no tomatoes, more hot sauce, etc). Of course, the restaurants also hire just one waiter, who now runs around like a headless chicken fulfilling orders, so it's not like automation is making the individual worker's life easier. But management gets to things to look nice on their spreadsheet with less labour costs so they keep the changes. I really don't think consumers like automation. There are some cases where's it's convenient (vending machine) and times where it isn't (dining in). But it's being forced en mass because vendors can get away with it, not because there's demand but because suppliers like it.
- latchkey 4y agoI went to a restaurant recently that did the QR menu thing. It was a long list of terrible UX on my phone. I'll never do that again. If a place can't give me a menu, I'm walking out and finding another place to eat.
- Idk__Throwaway 4y agoYou must not have gone out to eat much recently then. I'm on the road a lot and I'd estimate that over 50% of all restaurants I visit have a QR code menu.
- Shaggy2000 4y ago[flagged]