Ana Vidal Egea has an interesting El País piece on robot coffee shop baristas.
Robot bartenders: improving quality of life or the road to dystopia?
A New York coffee shop chain has opened its first establishment with robot baristas, following in the footsteps of similar ones in Russia, Dubai and Tokyo
“Humans can be unpredictable; let the robot make your coffee” is the slogan of the Botbar coffee shop chain, which opened its first store in New York on June 10 in the trendy neighborhood of Greenpoint, at 666 Manhattan Avenue, a number that for the more esoteric could portend the dawn of a dystopia where dehumanization prevails. But for the bar’s founder, Denise Chung, the robots are here to help us and contribute to improving the quality of life for both baristas and customers. “I will still have some employees who will have to fill the machines with coffee beans and greet the customers. The mechanical part will be taken care of by the robot.” The Botbar has several tables and three machines where customers can place their order on a touch screen. Adam, a robot, is in charge of preparing their coffee (he can rustle up 50 per hour). “It’s an improvement for the community; instead of being served by a waiter who is tired of making 500 coffees a day, they will have a robot that ensures the coffee is made quickly and perfectly,” Chung adds.
“I will still have some employees who will have to fill the machines with coffee beans and greet the customers. The mechanical part will be taken care of by the robot.” Chung says. Is that any less boring than making the coffee all day?
This chap thinks the robots will have to be humanized and maybe he's right, but we still seem to be drifting away from something important.
José Antonio González Alcantud, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Granada, points out the atmosphere surrounding a bar promotes sociability. “Thanks to drunkenness and food, modified states of consciousness are produced that facilitate enlightenment and free speech from its subjections. The French Revolution began in taverns. All its poets, from Baudelaire to Verlaine, or writers, from Balzac to Sartre, had their favorite taverns. In Spain or Italy, it won’t fly. Robots serving people? It’s not implausible, but it’s not going to succeed,” he says. “And if it does, we will be on the definitive road to dystopia, a sordid environment. Even so, we would have to humanize the robots and give them liturgical functions. We would anthropomorphize them, giving them nicknames and joking with them. The bar will remain the last trench of humanity.”
José Antonio González Alcantud, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Granada, points out the atmosphere surrounding a bar promotes sociability. “Thanks to drunkenness and food, modified states of consciousness are produced that facilitate enlightenment and free speech from its subjections. The French Revolution began in taverns. All its poets, from Baudelaire to Verlaine, or writers, from Balzac to Sartre, had their favorite taverns. In Spain or Italy, it won’t fly. Robots serving people? It’s not implausible, but it’s not going to succeed,” he says. “And if it does, we will be on the definitive road to dystopia, a sordid environment. Even so, we would have to humanize the robots and give them liturgical functions. We would anthropomorphize them, giving them nicknames and joking with them. The bar will remain the last trench of humanity.”
2 comments:
I like Alcantud's point. From a consumer point of view, a bar is mainly a means to enhanced sociability. A coffee bar (or the 18th Century London coffee shop) was originally about discussion and meeting people. Today, most of them seem to be about ingesting enough caffeine to allow one to function when one gets to the office, or to allow old codgers like me to recharge enough to face loading the shopping in the car. I always like it when a bit of sociability breaks out.
Sam - I like his point too - many people seem to use a coffee shop as a takeaway service. May as well go to the robot or use a vending machine.
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