Comment by Archer6621 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Archer6621 | Hacker News Reader

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I don't know whether you can really call it winning. Who is actually benefiting from the win here? Another small example: something you see now at restaurants are these QR codes being put on the tables, to remove the need for a waiter to come by and ask, or for you to get up and order, but by automating that away you also remove that little bit of social interaction for both the people ordering and the waiters.

There are many other little examples like this, where beneficial side-effects go lost from automation. I suppose LLMs serve as a prime example of how this can affect people quite negatively (e.g. skill atrophy), if not careful. I think adaptation only goes so far, and we are being arrogant in thinking that we can adapt to everything, because a large part of how we function as humans is not as adaptable as we think, e.g. our emotional and instinctual needs, or how we maintain skills that are essential in the long-term.

It also has been an incredibly short period with incredibly large changes, to be able to say that things will just adapt; perhaps they will, but at what cost, and who wins from it?

The QR codes are an interesting case. Restaurants in my area have been abandoning them. I think it’s because it actually slowed service down.

We stopped going to one favorite place because the wait for a table became interminable. You’d spend forever standing there watching people waiting 15-20 minutes to get a busser’s attention so they could ask a question about the food, and then another 5-10 minutes for someone who actually knows the answer to come out and talk to them. Or, after the meal was over, people would just camp out indefinitely.

> remove the need for a waiter to come by and ask, or for you to get up and order, but by automating that away you also remove that little bit of social interaction for both the people ordering and the waiters.

Okay, but were you coming to the restaurant for social interaction with the waiters? Have you stopped going to those restaurants that serve you good food at a reasonable price and which are otherwise desirable places to eat because of the lack of social interaction with waiters?

People dislike places that charge too much for mediocre service, and those places disproportionately use the QR codes for ordering and don't pass on the savings from labor reduction to the consumer. Very few people actually miss their waiter interrupting their conversation to tell them the specials.

That is more or less the crux of what I was pointing out: many of these things are little side-benefits that you get on the way, not as a primary concern. By stripping everything down to the essentials and always taking or accepting the direct path, you will end up missing out on whatever contributions those secondary things (that you otherwise did not think of) would have made to your life. Just missing out on the random social interactions with waiters or personnel doesn't do it on its own. But structurally missing out on little bits of social interactions that were there before in all kinds of places in life, because everything is becoming more convenient and automated (think of how online shopping is dominating), will most certainly affect people eventually.

I agree with your last point though, and you can turn it into a more general statement: some people or companies use automation to do more, and others use it to do less. There's probably a reason for it, among others most likely deprivation. People and companies are getting pushed to 11, and take shortcuts.

My favourite example is the petrol station attendant. Not only something really convenient went away but also the opportunity to upsell.

Loss on every side, still happened.

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