tokiokobayas's blog

    Obviously the loss of jobs due to automation is an inevitable problem, yet it makes me wonder why fast food chains like McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts don’t utilize automation to its maximum potential.
    For example, today I was in line at a Dunkin Donuts and all I had wanted to order was a donut with a coffee. If instead of people behind the counter we had machines instead, would that make the process go faster? Would it be cheaper for the business to have multiple machines (long term) make the orders and serve it instead?
    There is that cliche scene in movies and TV commercials of a rube goldberg machine performing tasks that would normally be done by a regular person, like washing the dishes or getting the kids dressed. Would it be possible to make that a reality in fast food places?
    Chains like McDonalds are already slowly getting rid of cashiers by having people order what they want on their own at a machine. Could it be possible to make a machine make the orders as well? Something simple like a burger or french fries are very simple to make. Why not make a machine that makes the order instead?
    In downtown Boston, there’s a place called Spyce where machines make the food, and there are no cooks in the place. Instead, the people behind the counter are people who are there to answer questions, and reload the machines in case they run low on a specific ingredient. From its reviews online, the place looks like it’s doing quite well and is a success. Why are more places not following suit?
    One of the reasons that come to mind, is the stigma that lies behind the idea of your food being made by a machine. I personally am a cook at a fine dining place, and I could never imagine a robot doing what we do at the restaurant. The food that comes out is imperfectly perfect every time, and it’s not picture perfect which could make the food seem almost unnatural. But something like fast food, I don’t see the problem with a robot making the food because it’s all very simple. It’s just a bun with meat and veggies with cheese, with some condiments and a bun on top. If anything, it’s possible that the food will come out looking even nicer than it usually does, because at least in American fast food chains, the food never comes out as nicely as it looks in advertisements.

    Earlier today there was a video posted by this Youtuber I follow named Domics, called “Hypotheticals: The Wagyu Problem”.  The video basically describes how Dom (Domics’ nickname) went out to try A5 Wagyu for the first time, and how the cattle lived a luxurious life of 3 years before it was slaughtered for its meat.
    So then this hypothetical question popped up. “What if you were able to live a grandeur life for x amount of time, knowing that by the end of that time you would be killed humanely for your meat to be served for other people (assuming cannibalism is legal and a regular occurrence in this hypothetical)”.
    Some questions obviously popped up, like how many years can you live in this wealthy lifestyle, what’s the spending limit (if there is any?), could you spread the wealth, and how could they keep you from running away once the time limit is up?
    One question I personally had was would they be able to pick anybody for that kind of lifestyle program, or would it have to be a select group of people who get the option to live like that? If it is a select group of people, then how do they determine who goes and who doesn’t? I think there are lots of moral complications and issues with the hypothetical, but I think it’s an interesting question nonetheless.
    The video was basically just Dom and two of his friends talking about the hypothetical, and it was really interesting to hear the other perspectives. One of them said they would most likely subject to that lifestyle if their friends did it, while the other two (including Dom) said they would still abstain from it.     Personally I pondered about the hypothetical, and I have to admit I think I would not want to live that kind of lifestyle. In my opinion, I think you would need to feel very strongly about finding fulfilment from materialistic value, and I personally don’t have that. Even if all of my friends were to do such a thing, I still think I would abstain from that kind of lifestyle since the people I believe I would end up becoming friends with, would all abstain from that lifestyle as well.

    After violently shaking the container containing the organism a few times, the organism still demonstrated the ability to move around and behave normally. Through this test alone, it can be hypothesized that its central nervous system is not complex and/or is well protected. Otherwise, the organism would have demonstrated an inability to move around after being violently shook. It was observed that the organism scrunches up after being violently shaken, and contracts its body immediately in response. This behavior is most likely a reflexive response in order to better protect its body. More tests were done, and it was realized that the longer or more violent the shake, the longer the organism stays in shock until it demonstrates the ability to move around again. A final test was performed, and the organism was shook for about 5 seconds violently. The organism was in shock for about 4 minutes before being able to regain its ability to move around again, supporting the initial hypothesis. The test was not redone for a longer time in fear that the organism may die if the shaking duration lasts too long.

    The organism appears to be a small caterpillar esque invertebrate that can shed, and looks similar to a c elegan as well. It is pale in color, a shade that is a grayish yellow. Its color is uniform and does not change across its entire body. The organism has no legs or hair, and is able to move around by scrunching up its body and then extending it. Its body is sectioned off into 8 difference pieces, with the first 7 at roughly the same size while the last section tapers off and is smaller than the rest. The smaller end has its end black as well. It is unable to adhere to its surfaces very well, and will quickly fall off whatever surface its on if the surface is tilted past 80 degrees. It has no visible facial features to the naked eye.
    It is a little over an inch in length. Its back end (the side without the small black tip) has two small black dots that look similar to eyes, but is more or less likely to just be fecal matter. Its width is about 2 to 3 millimeters, with a cylindrical/tubular body. It may be more accurate to call it the diameter of its body, rather than its width. Its mass is most likely around a gram, if not less and it exhibits radial symmetry.
    The organism has the ability to wriggle its body side to side, and can curl either ends of its body to go up or down. It’s very active and is constantly moving, but does stop to rest every once in a while. Its overall behavior is difficult to patternize, as it seems that it just moves in one direction or another randomly. Although it demonstrated its ability to move across the container, it seems to have an affinity to simply move in circles around the circumference of the circular container.
    After violently shaking the container a few times, the organism still demonstrated the ability to move around and behave normally. This most likely indicates that its central nervous system is not that complex and is well protected as well. Otherwise, the organism would have demonstrated no ability to move around after being violently shook. The organism also scrunches up after being violently shaken, and contracts its body. The longer the shake the longer the organism stays in shock until it demonstrates the ability to move around again. After about 5 seconds of violent shaking, the organism was in shock for about 4 minutes before being able to regain its ability to move around again. The test was not redone for a longer time in fear that the organism may actually die if the shaking duration lasts longer.