- Robot chefs are replacing humans at some South Korean highway restaurants.
- Tech companies say robots can help solve labor shortage in an aging nation.
- Workers say their roles have been downgraded from chefs to cleaning staff.
why is automation removing the joy and creativity of cooking instead of the dishes, which is what the person is left to do.
How much joy and creativity do think there was in these places before?
More than there was before the cooks got put on dishwashing and floor mopping.
Imagine being able to automate a cook but science still hasnt come far enough for some kind of dish washing machine and a robotic vaccum cleaner, weird huh
What do you think a dishwasher is
More work to prep dishes for washing than actual help
Have you ever used a dishwasher?
… you don’t need to prep your dishes before putting it in the dishwasher.
I lived in Korea for a couple of years and ate at some of these places while traveling.
It was honestly always good. Basically you do a quick order, get a ticket, then get your food. I always got the fried pork cutlet. That shit was the bomb.
Now that I am back in the states I miss the level of care and dedication that Koreans put into the food they make and I’d go back again just for the eats.
They are useful when someone works late shifts and wants something proper at like 12pm when every kitchen worker has long gone home. They usually offer a more limited menu but it‘s honestly a neat idea.
South Korea is genuinely fucked as a country. Population decline is going to ruin them. It’s going to ruin a lot in the U.S as well.
apparently SK is worst off than japan.
The USA was actually on a survivable path with our low domestic birth rate because of the large immigration was compensating. Well, now we’ve fucked that up royally by kicking out our immigrants, and also made ourselves a pariah on the global stage so no new immigrants will want to come here.
also the tariffs, and the anti-science funding cuts have turned people off from the US.
Are they really making the food worse, or are people just biased against it because a robot made it? Because humans are perfectly capable of making shit food themselves as well
In any case, in a world where 1st world countries actually took care of their citizens this would be a non-issue. Either there would be some sort of UBI program in place for workers that get replaced by robots or a worker re-training program or a combination of both (e.g. people still have an income during that training).
Either there would be some sort of UBI program in place for workers that get replaced by robots
UBI wouldn’t be just for workers that get replace by robots. The “U” in “UBI” is Universal, meaning everyone gets the Basic Income. From the guy with untreated mental illness that hangs out in the park to the richest billionaire.
Well yea, but rolling it out slowly as people get “displaced” is how it would realistically get started IMO. It would be quite a taxing program for any country to just suddenly start
The problem is that SK(and a vast majority of the rest of the world) have declining birth rates. South Korea doesn’t have a “staffing” issue, they have a people being born issue. And most of the rest of us are gonna start feeling it soon too!
If something drastic doesn’t change for SK soon, in 30-60 years they won’t have enough people working to cover pensions, let alone UBI.
You can pay for ubi by taxing the robots, both physical and digital.
UBI is entirely possible if we transfer just a fraction of the wealth from corporations back to people.
You can pay for ubi by taxing the robots, both physical and digital.
This suggestion is raised frequently, and quickly falls apart under scrutiny.
Give you me your definition of a “digital robot”.
Only humans can add love.
Thats called “eyeballing the recipie”
Love… apathy… it’s 2025, that Venn Diagram is a circle.
So, why not just replace humans at odd hours of the night some rando walks in, and keep em during normal buisness hours?
Because then you have an expensive robot not being used, while still keeping the wage bill.
These have been in use in German cantinas for a while as well. Usually inside hospitals or larger office spaces.
Never thought about it before, but is there science fiction with a premise where humans might someday forget how to cook because it’s no longer a part of the culture?
The Feeling of Power might be close enough. It’s an Isaac Asimov short story from 1958. Basic plot is that people have become so reliant on computers, they can’t do basic math or counting. It’s about what happens with mental decline with making machines do all the thinking. (There is more, and the link explains the story but I feel that I shouldn’t include spoilers, even for a 50+ year old story.
If you want, you can read the scans of the original here.
Also, Dad’s Nuke touched on this kind of subject with people having get together and they have to make their own food and come with things like Jalapeno Pie/Cake(?) and other interesting dishes which indicates that people are already losing the ability to do basic cooking.
That’s so cool, thank you. I never delved into Asimov before, but it’s sounds like I really should.
Star trek touches on it a bit. Some people definitely still cook in the shows, but it’s almost seen as a thing for special occasions.
That’s a good point! SNW does have Pike cooking for some of his crew on occasion.
Not off the top of my head. Cooking is frequently a recreational hobby though, it’s essentially an art form. So I think it’s about equally likely that dancing, painting or making music fade away.
Sewing is fading away but maybe that’s different enough
People do crossstitch and make unique outfits all the time. Everyone not in rich consumer countries (and the poorer people in those countries) all learn at least basic stiching.
