We seem to be moving towards automation faster than possible. My own role may one day disappear when driverless cars take to the roads. It just seems to have picked up the pace. Supermarkets and various stores here really seem to be getting rid of staff. There are fewer people serving you and more machines (which inevitably encounter problems, anyway, e.g. "refusing" to scan certain items).

It really dawned on me earlier. I had a documentary on as "background noise" whilst doing some accounts. I don't know what the documentary was called, but a B&B in Brighton was featured. The owner of the B&B has a "self check-in service" (how would that work?), and paying for breakfast equates to having the tray, collecting foods/condiments and making it yourself.

Is it a sign of the apocalypse when a B&B - surely one of the most people-centric businesses - is moving towards automation and a less personal service?!!

When I visit a B&B, I want to be greeted by the owner; I want him or her to ask how my journey was, and then offer to carry my bags (I want the offer, by the way, I always, without exception, politely decline and carry my own bags); I want a bit of small talk and the like as I sign for my keys and pay my room bill. Is it too much to ask, folks?

Same with breakfast. I have no particular issue with putting jam on toast and pouring orange juice into a glass. But when I've paid for a room, maybe, just maybe, I want the owner to serve me, chat with me briefly, recommend a good bar to me, ask me what it's like back home.

Please understand, this isn't about getting my bags carried (like I stated, I do that) or having orange juice poured into a glass (I can do that in a nanosecond). What I want is HUMAN CONTACT. What a cold, soulless and clinical world it will be if everywhere from supermarkets and petrol stations to B&Bs impose less human contact on us. I don't want to live in that world.

Any thoughts?

I mean, again, taxi driving as an example. There are ancillary jobs pertaining to taxi driving, e.g. those who worked in the licensing department of the council, those who tested my route knowledge, those who handled the paperwork and my badge, etc. What happens to them?

What of mechanics? Sure, they'll still be around to fix and maintain taxis, but then what happens if mechanics' jobs all become automated?

My reply to this isn't really relevant to the topic, but this post caught my eye -- I wonder if this kind of order screw-up isn't going to become somewhat commonplace for "kiosk" orders at fast food restaurants, as a means of the kitchen staff showing "solidarity" with the cashiers and front-line workers who would inevitably be replaced if the kiosks became the standard?

Kind of a subtle form of labor organization sans unions . . . could be interesting to observe the success and acceptance rate of these kind of kiosks to see if these type of "failures" become more commonplace as more and more jobs become threatened by automation.

Very interesting to me as an automation engineer.

[Edited for clarity]

There have been quite a few novels (and likely non-fiction books) regarding the aspect of solitude in an automated world. I see two aspects to it.

First, an upcoming generation that is born into automated appliances, systems, and services. They have no reason to want to put forth any excessive effort on their own part, and likely they couldn't understand why anybody would want to work.* This is likely an unwitting but irreversible trend toward solitude, interrupted only by televised contact and holograms. Who knows? If it's all they know, then people of that generation might be horrified and disgusted by human contact. (Ref. Isaac Asimov's "The Naked Sun" - about ANOTHER possible upcoming human phobia as well!

*We may have already seen aspects of this with "the hired help" - immigrants who have worked in so-called menial jobs. "There's no need to make dinner, George, when Mrs. Baker can get it."

Second, we are approaching a time when travel and interaction is inconvenient and inefficient. A large part of human interaction has been out of necessity... you work with other people, you celebrate with other people, you dine with other people... prior to a lot of man-made entertainment, human company was the ONLY way to do 'most anything.

Television, movies, and the internet may have writ done to a lot of this. I am not aware of the figures of church attendance - whether for services or for associated activities. I'm ignorant, too, of school attendances, in the modern era. But I'll bet a silk pajama that they're are both less popular than they once were because people are not desperate for entertainment and distraction anymore... and human interaction is a result of those original events, as well as a cause.

When I was laid off, I was simply alone at home all day long (save for interviews and such... rare enough in my search.) My human interaction was my wife, occasionally my family and friends (those were pretty rare), and my posts and replies here on the board. And I have not the least idea how any of you look or sound... save for Mr. Byrne, of course. Even then, he's kinda hard to get details past the glowing aura, and I'm told his voice is deific and thundering. :)

If other social engagements - dining, entertainment, education, and even military and sports occurrences - continue to wane in popularity, we may be headed straight on for a life of solitary ignorance. I doubt it can happen soon or last long... but I wouldn't be surprised if it ran a few decades.