Progress Always Mixes the Good With the Less Good
Dear friends,
I had a very interesting experience last week, and as often happens, it got me to think a bit more deeply about what I had just seen…
I went into a coffee shop in Palo Alto, just to look around, having already had my afternoon cappuccino. As I walked in deeper, I saw a long thin counter with a track in it. Along the track was sliding a robot arm. The arm would move laterally from time to time, grab a plastic cup, and move to get under a liquid dispensing machine. Out would come coffee, soda, milk, etc. Then the arm would retract back to the long track, and slide to the next position if the final drink required more than one liquid.
It would move very fast, but appropriately slow down once the cup was filled. It finally would place the cup on a different counter, the concoction having been fully assembled. Then it would get back to work making the next drink, and placing it where it would go for pick-up by a customer.
It was very science-fictiony. But it somehow left me unsettled. It is not that I do not like tech (I use ChatGPT 20 times a day now). I am not—medium-term—concerned about job loss. Every technology loses jobs at first (cars replaced horses, looms replace hand-stitched clothing, telephones replaced hand-delivered messages, etc.) The world grows and even more jobs are created… eventually. It is hard on people caught on the cusp, but in the long run the world grows and people are, generally speaking, significantly better off materially.
What I did find unsettling, however, was that the human interaction was removed. When I order a coffee I feel gratitude to the person making it, and they feel the value of service in helping someone else. I have to admit it would be hard for me to muster up gratitude towards the machine, and I also saw no hint of a satisfied smile on it as it served the drinks. Productivity and technology make the world better, but I myself will be somewhat vigilant in making sure human connections still happen when possible.
We are entering a new world, and it will—as has always been the case—have advantages and disadvantages. I remember a marvelous scene in an old movie with Spencer Tracy. In a courtroom, he made the comment, “Yes, mankind, you can learn to fly, but the birds will never again seem quite so wonderful.” Life is always pluses and minuses.
Let us always accept what cannot be changed with an open and trusting heart, and find the good in each development. The path in front of us can never be fully known, and surprises, adjustments, and adaptations are the rule and not the exception.
Blessings,
David G., manager
For the staff at East West