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The Next Time You Order Room Service, It May Come by Robot (nytimes.com)
Hotels across the country are rushing to introduce robots with the promise of enhancing the guest experience and increasing efficiency. From a report: The automated companions can do everything from make and pick up deliveries to help guests find their way around. Aloft Cupertino in the Silicon Valley (rates from $150) was the first hotel in the United States to debut Savioke's Relay robot in 2014. The three foot tall autonomous robot, nicknamed Botlr, weighs 90 pounds and makes deliveries throughout the hotel using multiple sensors, 3D cameras and Wi-Fi to operate the elevators. Marriott has since begun mobile robot service at four other Aloft properties. Other hotels are following suit. H Hotel Los Angeles's Relay robot, named Hannah, made 610 front desk deliveries and 42 room service deliveries, traveling a total of 50 miles, in the first three months since the hotel opened last October (rates from $249).
*cough* I mean, y'know... as a geek...
Will the room-service robot also have big fake breasts and pee on my bed? Asking for a friend.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Thanks for telling Slashdotters that Cupertino is in the Silicon Valley. We had no idea.
And it's really important to list the rate card for products and services we discuss here too. There aren't too many of us with "hotel staying" experience.
For myself I just prefer to keep people working by having people perform even mundane services like pizza delivery or room service. I just think you have people who do these jobs for extra money, or a high school age kid getting a first job for spending money. I get everything is going robot for everything, but have we really thought this out?
It wasn't easy to find something to complain about this time, was it? Still, you managed to do it. Chapeau!
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
>> I'm a hotel manger
Have any virgins heavy with God's only son been by lately?
So, in other words, I should never use an elevator in a hotel that has these robots ever again, unless I want some hacker to send me hurtling to my death? Gotcha.
Best part
I mean, I'm pretty sure they were an option back in the 80s... they just weren't worth the expense or trouble.
eliminate the need for low wage employees. You don't need affordable housing and public services for them if you don't need them in a 100 mile radius.
Also, hadn't really thought just how rife for automation the Hotel industry is until now. Outside of the expensive ones where it's just for show I'll bet the only people on site in 10 years will be a few security guards to make sure nobody breaks in or sneaks too many of their friends into a room.
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There is something to be said for work. Most of us may grumble about it from time to time. But the fact of the matter is that having useful work to do and work responsibilities, whether it be writing software or washing dishes, flipping burgers or being a full time parent, really does, as the old saying goes, build character.
Economically, I suspect that we'll probably wind up with some sort of BLS stipend, with laws limiting how much paid work one is allowed to do in those fields that aren't in one way or another automated out of existence. A few will find ways to game the system (as people always have) and rise to economic heights. People will still get fed, and there will still be roofs over heads.
But what do people do, who have no work? To be sure, some will have talents for music and art and such that will keep them engaged and working. But I doubt that this will be true for the majority of the population. So, what happens when the majority no longer has responsibility, nor is engaged in learning the life lessons that come from it? That, I think, will lead to some real ugliness.
Check your premises.
Well, at least 'til the first hacker conference is being held at the hotel. Then they'll probably shut down. Either the service or the hotel, depending on when they notice it...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
... FAKE NAME ....
Says AC.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
90 pounds sounds about right, but the room service I order, comes with high _heels_, not _wheels_, albeit it's also sometimes named Hannah.
>> quoted block of text comes directly from the NY Times article
Please tell me again why SlashDot editors receive "paychecks".
>> is pro forma for the NYT travel section
Most of the city just uses that section for their bird cages. Keep in mind, is SlashDot, not some dead tree Boomer publication.
I agree and disagree.
Having useful stuff to do - that's important. I think that when a person feels like what they're doing - whatever it is - matters, they will find some fulfillment.
Having artificial responsibilities tied to a job? Not so much.
I find no value in responsibilities tied to work that may or may not be meaningful in any real way. I find zero value in responsibilities tied to an arbitrary job for an arbitrary entity - they are pointless constraints on my time, energy and freedom.
I do find value in responsibilities voluntarily tied to people or persons, where my unique self is of specific value to the people or persons I'm responsible to.
What do we do when people have no "work" responsibility? We hopefully teach people to care about other people, rather than just economic gain.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
I snorted.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
There is something to be said for work. Most of us may grumble about it from time to time. But the fact of the matter is that having useful work to do and work responsibilities, whether it be writing software or washing dishes, flipping burgers or being a full time parent, really does, as the old saying goes, build character.
Couldn't agree with you more. Engaging the mind is also proven to be rather critical as we age as well.
Economically, I suspect that we'll probably wind up with some sort of BLS stipend, with laws limiting how much paid work one is allowed to do in those fields that aren't in one way or another automated out of existence. A few will find ways to game the system (as people always have) and rise to economic heights. People will still get fed, and there will still be roofs over heads.
BLS, UBI, or whatever label marketing will put on it will be nothing more than Welfare 2.0 for the unemployable masses. Economically this will spell disaster, as those living at the poverty level are not afforded the luxuries that keep the economic world spinning 'round. You can't even give away a smartphone when the masses can't even afford the service to run it on. Same goes for new cars, oversized homes, mall shopping, travel, and damn near every form of professional entertainment.
But what do people do, who have no work? To be sure, some will have talents for music and art and such that will keep them engaged and working. But I doubt that this will be true for the majority of the population. So, what happens when the majority no longer has responsibility, nor is engaged in learning the life lessons that come from it? That, I think, will lead to some real ugliness.
Agreed. Civil unrest will boil up first from the generation who remembers how good they used to have it, which will have to be eradicated if those in control intend to brainwash the subsequent generations to believe life demands existing, and not much more.
I would like to think that you are correct.
However, I simply don't believe that freed the necessity of work that human nature will change all that much.
With this said, I still maintain that when people do things that they don't want to do to improve and support themselves, and more so when they do them to support others, that it really does build character. [1]
And ironically, character is one of those things that can mitigate the cesspool that is human nature.
[1] I would actually claim that character always comes from doing those things that our basic human nature resists.
Check your premises.
GOOD NEWS!
We'll all be girding our loins and packing up our shit to migrate to less hostile environments.
Work is the presence of challenges that must be overcome.
One of those challenges will be that the nomads will be encroaching on lands that are already occupied.
War provides good jobs up and down the spectrum from aggression to defense.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
> You are proposing a dystopian socialist future. Not going to happen in America.
Darn right!
Republicans would never allow a socialist dystopian future. They prefer a different kind of dystopian future that favors the 1% richest.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Yeah, but Dr. Who got the last room.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
The geek side of me wants to smile in delight until I realize that this has cost someone their job and livelihood. Suddenly, this is not so great anymore.
But what do people do, who have no work?
Assuming we can figure out how to keep everyone fed, housed and cared for, which is still a very big question, probably people will do what they enjoy doing. Do people really need jobs, if all their needs are already being met? It seems we have a number of populations that who get along well enough without going to a job every day -- retirees, the idle rich, stay at home spouses (with or without kids), kids done with HS or college who are not quite ready to go out into the world (some of these can last a surprisingly long time) .... and there are some people who work just enough to get by to whatever standard of living they are willing to accept, and go from part time job to part time job, or do casual labor, gigs or short term contracts.
What does work provide that you can't get through other activities? And more interestingly, what other activities become much more practical when you don't have to squeeze them in around the 45-80 hours one might spend on work/commute/work-related activities?
Dash and I sometimes hang out, usually in the elevator, when I stay at the Milpitas Crowne Plaza.
Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
Actually, I would prefer a robot come to my door than an obnoxious human being.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Thanks for telling Slashdotters that Cupertino is in the Silicon Valley. We had no idea.
That's for the dozen or so people who read the weekly Slashdot article which concerns Australia.
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I can also assure you that NOBODY is RUSHING to get these new fangled automobile thingies.
It took at least 60 years between the invention of the automobile to the time when there was around one automobile per family, and at least 80 years before an automobile was cost-effective for most families (i.e. it cost less than 10% of the median annual household income).
Even when you can see a clear advantage, that doesn't mean everyone is in a rush to get one.
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That's well on it's way. You can have a two tiered menu. Cheap stuff made by machines and more expensive stuff that still needs a cook. That's the part of Automation folks always forget, you don't have to go all in. If you automate even 20% it has a huge impact on your bottom line (and a huge impact on layoffs....)
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That's for the dozen or so people who read the weekly Slashdot article which concerns Australia.
Doesn't Australia have its own Slashdot, or is that just Japan?
Not its own Slashdot, no. This is the closest.
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Still staying at hotels? It's so 20th century. We're all using airbnb.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...