
Who pushes the button? - got-any-grapes
https://aeon.co/essays/what-would-a-world-without-pushbuttons-look-like
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roywiggins
"The Machine Stops" by E M Forster is a pretty remarkable science fiction
story from around the same time period that the article begins, when people
were worrying about over mechanization.

[http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html](http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html)

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sdrothrock
This was amazing. Thank you for recommending it.

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priansh
This is definitely an interesting read.

I'd think that in general, we as a civilization are moving closer to instant,
on-demand gratification. It's not a trend that's necessarily bad, but it does
raise the standards in terms of speed, ease of access, and quality of service.

The most obvious case is email. It started as an inbox and has turned into an
extremely fine-grained, organized method. What started as a way to communicate
has largely become "too slow" and now there's all sorts of AI to aid this:
take Google's smart reply (on [https://gmail.com](https://gmail.com)), for
example, or Aiko mail's "quick actions" and one click email management (on
[https://helloaiko.com](https://helloaiko.com)). We're moving towards an age
where it is largely becoming "too slow" to communicate with each other; people
just want to press a button and have themselves expressed.

Even texting, which is largely regarded as one of the fastest ways to
communicate (_instant_ messaging), suffers from this--it started with
autocomplete and Quick Reply, and now Facebook is changing it up with
Messenger smart replies (on [https://messenger.com](https://messenger.com)).

Again, it's not necessarily a bad trend. It's just one that raises standards
pretty high.

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sandworm101
>> It is no longer necessary to speak to be served. You step into a hotel,
press the button, and a succulent luncheon appears suddenly before your
delighted vision.

WTF? Where is this magic hotel? Is this luncheon being displayed as some sort
of hologram? The day that a vending machine can produce a "succulent luncheon"
is the day robots have taken over. Every recent attempt at robot cooks, even
robot waiters, seems to have failed miserably.

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scatters
When did you last go to a fast food joint? The food is still produced and
delivered by humans, but it's ordered via an app or touchscreen interface.

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sandworm101
Yesterday. I drove there in a car piloted by a human. I ordered by talking to
a human. I handed cash to a human. My food was prepared by a human and handed
to me by a human. For all the tech articles, little has changed since drive-
throughs were invented back in the 50s.

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dmix
Ritual has completely changed how I order food. I never wait in line, talk to
the staff, or have to pay in person. You just show up when the app tells you
it will be ready and grab the bag and go.

Everyone I know who started using it uses it nearly daily or multiple times a
week. There's often 10+ bags waiting for Ritual users at any time at a
hamburger place I frequent.

Not to mention Uber eats and other delivery services. Retail interaction for
food is changing rapidly.

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asark
I had to add "food ordering" to "ritual" to get DDG or Google to tell me what
you might be talking about. The landing page doesn't explain what it does, at
all, above the fold. "Make friends with food" is the largest text and it
appears this does something called "social ordering". Is that like group
orders? Or catering? Or does it automatically post everything I order to my
social media? "Make friends with food" plus the image on the page makes me
think maybe it's some kind of food-related meet-up thing, like you take a slot
at a table with other strangers who are also using the app so you're not alone
at lunch.

Whatever it is, I can "order now". Scrolling reveals that yes, it appears it's
just group orders and take-out. What a revolution.

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Nition
I realise this isn't the point of the article at all (although it is
mentioned) but man, pushing a button is much better than _touching_ a
capacitive button. Forget the pain of replacing humans with buttons; when are
real pushable buttons and turnable knobs coming back‽

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foxyv
This is one reason why I probably will not get a car with touchscreen controls
for stuff.

