The Appetizer ... or the Main Course ... of Things to Come?

There's a place at LaGuardia Airport that has iPads at every seat for ordering, and you can sit there and surf the web while you eat. Great conversation stopper.

 

I guess you're creating jobs at the tablet factory.

 

Delta Terminal D. I had breakfast there about an hour ago. I'm not a fan, although I was happy someone came over to refill my coffee. it's even worse ordering drinks from an iPad. Bartender-patron interaction and drink customization go out the window. They also suggest tips. I dialed down from 20 percent to 15 percent based on the lack of, you know, service.

 

The new "Real Simple" magazine, a crafts mag for women, has a section this week on what phones and tablets and social media are doing to us and our interactions. The issue is gaining a lot of momentum. It refers to studies in which people will start to get antsy and uncomfortable if two minutes go by without looking at their phone. It's been observed over and over.

 

Frank Bruni today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/opinion/bruni-the-sweet-caress-of-cyberspace.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

"(W)ith our amassed knowledge and scientific accomplishments, we may be succeeding in rendering ourselves obsolete. Around the same time that I saw the movie, Jeff Bezos sketched out his plans for delivery by drone. The Times published a front-page account of Google’s grand designs for robots in manufacturing and shipping. And a video producer I know returned from a shoot at a food production plant shocked that she hadn’t laid eyes on many people. Just a small posse of engineers and a slew of machines.

"Economists have sounded the alarm about what this could mean for employment and the distribution of wealth. It falls to artists to contemplate what this could mean for psyches and souls(.)"

Bruni's column is about an upcoming movie called "Her," in which a man falls in love with a Siri-like voice in his car. It's funny that so many movie critics thought "The Social Network" was the movie that took on this topic a couple years ago. It seems now the floodgates are really opening. It's cliche, but people are concerned.

 

right, no way that's automated, as long as 2billion Asians will work for rice