• 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.
  • Goodtoknow@lemmy.ca
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    22 days ago

    why is automation removing the joy and creativity of cooking instead of the dishes, which is what the person is left to do.

      • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        When I was a cook, even if I was just making something simple, I could still find creative satisfaction in a variety of ways. How you sprinkle on the garnish, plating, using a little more of this, a little less of that. Food to a chef is like art designed to be destroyed, so with the temporary nature of the medium, it really allows you to be creative. You’re not hung up on making it perfect, because it’s just about to be eaten, so it let’s you be more free with your design choices. It can be fun creating art while you’re supposed to be working.

        but if my job was suddenly just washing up after a machine… well. That will get old real quick.

    • ssillyssadass@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      Automation should replace cooks, but in fast food restaurants instead of proper ones. They should free up people who work brain-dead jobs at Mcdonalds or KFC to let them work at other places, including other proper restaurants that don’t make fast food.

      • Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world
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        20 days ago

        Lol yeah right. I’m sure the only thing stopping Brandon from working at a Michelin restaurant is his McDonald’s job off of I-95

        • ssillyssadass@lemmy.world
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          20 days ago

          So it’s better that he never even gets the opportunity to try to make it there? It’s better if he works at Mcdonalds until he’s 60?

  • cm0002@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    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).

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      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.

      • cm0002@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        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

        • Sturgist@lemmy.ca
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          22 days ago

          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.

      • ssillyssadass@lemmy.world
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        20 days ago

        There’s no love in food, only improvised measurements. Adding too much or too little of something alters the taste in subtle ways to make the dish taste unique.

    • ssillyssadass@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      That’s what I’m thinking. I bet if you put a human-prepared meal and a robot-prepared meal next to each other and didn’t tell the customer which is which, they wouldn’t be able to tell. It’s like how wine tastes better if you think it’s more expensive.

  • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    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.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      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.

  • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    These have been in use in German cantinas for a while as well. Usually inside hospitals or larger office spaces.

  • veee@lemmy.ca
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    22 days ago

    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?

    • jacksilver@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      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.

      • veee@lemmy.ca
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        22 days ago

        That’s a good point! SNW does have Pike cooking for some of his crew on occasion.

    • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      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.

        • phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
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          22 days ago

          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.

  • ssillyssadass@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    I think this is what SK has to do, given their slowly dwindling population. Staffing restaurants with robots will let the people who would have worked there get employed at places that may need a human worker.