When I stepped into Burger King in South Korea today I was greeted by these two monolithic computers designed to take your order and payment. I knew this would happen eventually just surprised to see it in place so suddenly. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Technological revolutions make things more efficient but take away jobs. This is nothing new. It happened with the Industrial Revolution and in every industry since then as more automatization comes into play.
Having said that, ordering and paying at these touchscreens was ridiculously easy and efficient. You simply touch the items you want to order then insert your credit card. It also seemed that the prices for items were much, much lower than they had been before. I assume this is a result of the savings made possible by touchscreen ordering.
I suppose it's only a matter of time before fast-food restaurants become fully automated. And it won't just happen in fast-food but other industries as well. Many years back there were private schools in South Korea that were trying to replace teachers with robots. Fortunately for the human workers that failed miserably because none of the kids respected the machine.
But I wonder about the future. When will the whole of life be fully automated? I suppose once that future, fully automated society is established life could be pretty good. It could even be a utopia where nobody had to work ever again. However the process leading up to that will be horrible indeed as more and more people lose their jobs as we all become redundant.
