Robots already make your toast, and consistently get it wrong. Only because toasters require new instruction for every piece of toast, and I, like most everyon

Robots already make your toast, and consistently get it wrong. Only because toasters require new instruction for every piece of toast, and I, like most everyone else, consistently give them the wrong instructions -- I place the toast in the wrong place, I set the toaster too hot, I set it to run too long, and I never perform sufficient experimentation to determine what the right variables are for a given type, size, and quantity of bread. Robots for the next decade will certainly increase costs of chefs. You know short order cooks at most restaurants get paid close to nothing right? 10/hr = 20K/yr = 10% the cost of today's robots, and probably 2% factoring maintenance. And thats just for the hardware. The problems we're talking about require better hardware (for perception and dexterous hand) and unavailable software. We have an long industrial history of steadily decreasing costs, steadily increasing power and features, and producing hardware and writing software that was hitherto unavailable. The question isn't whether we can do it, but whether we'll invest the resources necessary to do it. Lower on the spectrum of dining, the "cook" is actually a microwave. People don't want to know how much food is just reheated. Ever eaten a "hot continental breakfast" at a hotel? Biscuits and gravy, bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage, etc. - all reheated from frozen. Disgusting. People have varied tastes and acclimations. What does that have to do with a Robot Chef? Finally, it's pretty arrogant to assume the perfect burger is just the right combination of ingredients and permutation of steps. The perfect burger is 100% an editorial creation. Isn't cooking the perfect burger exactly a question of ingredients and permutations of steps adjusted for those ingredients and personal preference --- regardless of whether it's a robot or a human doing the cooking?