I can explain. This is a free country. You can meditate anywhere.
Just to prove our freedoms and to show my flexibility, I chose to meditate at a Chick-fil-A.
This is a big change.
The previous five were done while seated at McDonald’s.
Earlier columns:
02/20/09: A Meditation on McDonald’s
04/17/11: Meditation on McDonald’s, Part 2
11/01/13: Meditation on McDonald’s, Once More
08/26/18: Meditation at McDonald’s 4
07/20/2019: Still Meditating at McDonald’s
Also, I actually went inside the Chick-fil-A.
Why? Because I was determined to eat at a table, just like humans did long ago.
This is where courage comes in.
If you’ve been to a Chick-fil-A, you know there is a traffic difference between eating at a McDonald’s and eating at a Chick-fil-A. At McDonald’s you can park and walk into the store without having to cross a moving line of takeout cars. It’s pretty casual.
At Chick-fil-A entry is more challenging. You’ve got to cross a gantlet, often a double-lane gantlet, of hungry — maybe hangry — drivers who are placing their takeout orders.
This is the only way to enter the Chick-fil-A’s I’ve visited. I think of it as a big reverse of the old “Why did the chicken cross the road?” joke. Why? Because it’s a regular opportunity for a human to become a Darwin Award winner while crossing traffic to eat chicken.
Inside, only two tables were occupied. Within seconds, while I was still standing, a young woman, electronic tablet in hand, asked to take my order. I ordered, found a table and waited.
A few minutes later my food arrived, delivered by a robot.
Don’t go getting any big ideas here. This was no HAL, the famous omniscient computer from the movie “2001.” It wasn’t even a Chat-Bot. There was clearly no opportunity to discuss the meaning of life or explore the growth rate differences between robot and human populations. (Hint: The robots are winning.) This was a simple wheeled creature with a white plastic body topped with a tray. Just above the tray it sported a cute little head with LCD features. It was a robot with a mission.
It announced that my order had arrived.
My rolling, automated server must have had other things to do because it reminded me again, only a few seconds later, that my order was at hand.
So, I walked to the robot and took my bag. It then departed toward the kitchen before I could ask any questions.
What kind of questions? Well, I hate to be prissy, but it would be nice to know if robot training included instructions in etiquette. You know, like serving from the left and removing from the right.
Other questions are terribly big.
As in: “Are these funny machines going to replace all the human servers who are just now starting to earn $15 an hour?” If so, where are all the young people who get their first job in food services going to get their start?
This isn’t just a concern about kids learning how to work. The kids pay employment taxes from day one. Robots don’t pay taxes of any kind. Indeed, robots are a good source of corporate depreciation deductions. So, I’m wondering when the AARP will organize the first march to save Social Security by banning robots.
In fact, people are disappearing all over. It is now possible to get through most of our daily activities without ever speaking to a human being. Skeptics should consider my quick list of day-to-day Burns family activities:
— Bank transactions: Virtually all online. Sometimes visit an ATM but do that less and less because there is no use for cash.
— Gas stations: It’s been fill up and leave without talking to a person for decades.
— Supermarkets: For small shopping trips, the self-scan service has displaced seeing a cashier and there are fewer cashiers.
— Home stuff: For most trips it’s quicker to take the self-service-scan route at Home Depot, again because there are fewer cashiers.
— Fast food: Chick-fil-A may have robots, but McDonald’s has an order kiosk. Even Chili’s, which isn’t really fast food, has an order machine at your table.
— Department and Big Box stores: They’ve been virtually uninhabited for years. If you don’t know exactly what you want and where to find it, you’re out of luck. You might see a human at check out. Then again, I’ve left a Macy’s without making a purchase because I couldn’t find a person to do the sale.
— Amazon: Thriving due to the abandonment of service by conventional retailers, Amazon has always meant no human contact. You only know a human has come close because you get a picture of your package on your doorstep.
The real “new normal” is that humans will be neither seen nor heard.
Related columns:
Scott Burns, “A Meditation on McDonald’s,” 2/22/2009 https://scottburns.com/a-meditation-on-mcdonalds/
Scott Burns, “Meditation on McDonald’s,” 4/17/2011 https://scottburns.com/meditation-on-mcdonalds-part-2/
Scott Burns, “Meditation on McDonald’s,” 11/1/2013 https://scottburns.com/meditation-on-mcdonalds-once-more/
Scott Burns, “Meditation on McDonald”s 4,” 8/26/2018 https://scottburns.com/meditation-at-mcdonalds-4/
Scott Burns, “Still Meditating at McDonald’s,” 7/20/2019 https://scottburns.com/still-meditating-at-mcdonalds/
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Photo by raja j: https://www.pexels.com/photo/food-bird-dinner-animal-17064389/
(c) Scott Burns, 2023