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Ask HN: Why aren't we automating all the things?

Why haven't we (as a society/tech community/ etc.) automated far more things than are already automated? It's not hard to name numerous examples of jobs that could be near completely automated by the right small team. Starbucks? Cashiers? Financial Advisers? Physical Engineers? Many of the tasks performed by code monkies? There are many more that I will not bother trying to think up and name here. Please name them all in the comments. To be honest, I speculate that we are very intimidated by the notion of the power of automation within our ability (as a society), because it is quite obvious that we do not utilize our ability to automate to the fullest. It is not a limitation of economics as hardware and software are much much cheaper long term than any labor of any kind. Anyways ...

codecondo 12y ago
I'm not very proficient on this matter, but I think you're missing some essentials. Things are already automated quite a bit, imagine seeing your server at local Starbucks - heating up a kettle on top of some firewood, grinding those coffee beans with his bare hands. I think in a sense, many things are already automated; you just have to look at it that way. You're right, automation is scary. As a blogger, I always thought it would be cool to have as much automated tasks as possible, especially in those dark corners of content. I'm okay with admitting that I was wrong. You as a person can come up with a lot better solutions, not to mention that it's hard to teach emotion to machines. Sorry if I got the wrong message, this kind of just blew out of my brain.
johnloeber 12y ago
It's been not that long (perhaps a few decades at most) since we've been able to do this, and it's been only a few years since we've been able to effectively do this. So: relax. Automation is coming. In many areas, it has already arrived, and now it's just a matter of time for the effects to percolate through the system and for it to become commonplace. Also don't forget that this is partially a political issue, as automating these things requires changes in legislature (see e.g. self-driving cars). The political ship turns slowly, so have a bit of patience.
greenyoda 12y ago
"Why haven't we (as a society/tech community/ etc.) automated far more things than are already automated?" Because most people would rather deal with people than with machines, and thus replacing all human workers with machines would be bad for business. Here's an example I see every week: Automated cashiers already exist - they're called self-checkout scanners. In the supermarket where I shop, the lines are always shorter (or empty) at these machines because most people prefer the checkout lanes where there are human cashiers. (I prefer the machines, but I'm definitely not a representative member of the population.) Another example: It's nice to go to a place like Starbucks and get greeted by a friendly person who remembers you and knows what you want. Being recognized by a machine doesn't have the same feeling. And lots of people go to financial advisers because they're unsure of what they should be doing and want reassurance. I don't think machines are very good at being reassuring yet.
- mod 12y ago
  I prefer the lines with human cashiers, but primarily because I don't want to scan all of my own things. Some day when all the items are RFID tagged and I can just walk right through the scanner--that will be an amazing day. I think we're more likely, though, to just do all of our shopping online and have it same-day-delivered before then.
  - surreal 12y ago
    In the meantime a number of large supermarkets in the UK let you scan everything as you drop it into your trolley, and just pay at the end. A nice middle ground until, as you say, supermarkets disappear. http://www.tesco.com/scan-as-you-shop/ http://www.tesco.com/scan-as-you-shop/ is one example
RogerL 12y ago
Sure, you could walk up to a touchscreen and order your espresso. But I want to ask if the scones are fresh. Or how sweet the iced tea is. Or ask for a sample of something. Or ask for extra sugars. And on and on. And how 'easy' is it? How do you handle changing inventory? Running out of materials? Are you ADA compliant? How many languages do you support? And so on. Go ahead, try to mock up an ordering app for a coffee shop that gets different pastries in each day, have an ever changing offering of beans, and each customer has a very particular set of desires for how their coffee is made. Make it work for the Spanish woman, the blind child, the teenager in a wheelchair. Get it to answer "which pastries don't have eggs in them?"

codecondo 12y ago

I'm not very proficient on this matter, but I think you're missing some essentials. Things are already automated quite a bit, imagine seeing your server at local Starbucks - heating up a kettle on top of some firewood, grinding those coffee beans with his bare hands. I think in a sense, many things are already automated; you just have to look at it that way. You're right, automation is scary. As a blogger, I always thought it would be cool to have as much automated tasks as possible, especially in those dark corners of content. I'm okay with admitting that I was wrong. You as a person can come up with a lot better solutions, not to mention that it's hard to teach emotion to machines. Sorry if I got the wrong message, this kind of just blew out of my brain.

johnloeber 12y ago

It's been not that long (perhaps a few decades at most) since we've been able to do this, and it's been only a few years since we've been able to effectively do this. So: relax. Automation is coming. In many areas, it has already arrived, and now it's just a matter of time for the effects to percolate through the system and for it to become commonplace. Also don't forget that this is partially a political issue, as automating these things requires changes in legislature (see e.g. self-driving cars). The political ship turns slowly, so have a bit of patience.

greenyoda 12y ago

"Why haven't we (as a society/tech community/ etc.) automated far more things than are already automated?" Because most people would rather deal with people than with machines, and thus replacing all human workers with machines would be bad for business. Here's an example I see every week: Automated cashiers already exist - they're called self-checkout scanners. In the supermarket where I shop, the lines are always shorter (or empty) at these machines because most people prefer the checkout lanes where there are human cashiers. (I prefer the machines, but I'm definitely not a representative member of the population.) Another example: It's nice to go to a place like Starbucks and get greeted by a friendly person who remembers you and knows what you want. Being recognized by a machine doesn't have the same feeling. And lots of people go to financial advisers because they're unsure of what they should be doing and want reassurance. I don't think machines are very good at being reassuring yet.

mod 12y ago
I prefer the lines with human cashiers, but primarily because I don't want to scan all of my own things. Some day when all the items are RFID tagged and I can just walk right through the scanner--that will be an amazing day. I think we're more likely, though, to just do all of our shopping online and have it same-day-delivered before then.
- surreal 12y ago
  In the meantime a number of large supermarkets in the UK let you scan everything as you drop it into your trolley, and just pay at the end. A nice middle ground until, as you say, supermarkets disappear. http://www.tesco.com/scan-as-you-shop/ http://www.tesco.com/scan-as-you-shop/ is one example

RogerL 12y ago

Sure, you could walk up to a touchscreen and order your espresso. But I want to ask if the scones are fresh. Or how sweet the iced tea is. Or ask for a sample of something. Or ask for extra sugars. And on and on. And how 'easy' is it? How do you handle changing inventory? Running out of materials? Are you ADA compliant? How many languages do you support? And so on. Go ahead, try to mock up an ordering app for a coffee shop that gets different pastries in each day, have an ever changing offering of beans, and each customer has a very particular set of desires for how their coffee is made. Make it work for the Spanish woman, the blind child, the teenager in a wheelchair. Get it to answer "which pastries don't have eggs in them?"