What effects did COVID have on society?

[Bobby Cole]

The problem is that at some point, if we choose to eat out, that's what we'll get. And I recall those robots being used in Japan a long time ago. Dunno if it's still being done. And I see risk to them. When a robot server passes a table of pranksters en route to my table, goodness knows what might happen to my food. That's not a risk in Japan, but it sure is here.

As I was thinking of that doorman story, the fallacy in the logic is that it's assumed a business will hire a doorman of that quality (or that a person of that quality will accept that job), or if businesses look at things through the lens of "price" versus "total cost," as inferred in the analogy. So the business might already have distilled the position down to nothing more than a door opener through the hiring process, whether or not they choose to automate it. And I have no idea how difficult it is these days to fill and retain staff in positions such as doorman or receptionist or server. Lots of things drive automating tasks besides labor costs. A robot server might be less damaging to a restaurant than the warm body with an attitude they're forced to hire just to make sure orders get taken...if they can even find someone to take the job. My local diner has been closing for periods during the day due to staffing issues.

We learned a lot of things from and about the Covid pandemic era but the main lesson a lot of us learned is how much of a social entity that we humans really are.
Whether we admit it or not, we need to interact with other people. We are humans and nothing will replace a hug, a handshake or even that not so ernest, “have a good day” we get from the checkout cashier.
Although “face time” and zoom calls with family, friends and coworkers are nice, it still cannot replace that special feeling that one gets from being in close proximity with someone. In a strange way, we psychologically feed off of each other.

And let’s not forget the kids. During the lockdowns, kids didn’t interact with other children for a year or so and to that end, so much harm was done that cannot be undone by any measure. Kids teach other kids, among other things, how to play and play games which is one of the first steps in fulfilling that destiny of becoming the socialized creature that we are meant to be.
With ai, kids needn’t learn anything of real value but simply stay in their rooms and push buttons which, are far too many doing just that even at this present time.

Whether it is replacing the doorman, the waiter or waitress or even the grocery store cashier with an ai automaton, it’s just another step toward truthfully (to be cliche’) “severing the ties that bind us” as a society.

 

[John Brunner]

We learned a lot of things from and about the Covid pandemic era but the main lesson a lot of us learned is how much of a social entity that we humans really are.
Whether we admit it or not, we need to interact with other people. We are humans and nothing will replace a hug, a handshake or even that not so ernest, “have a good day” we get from the checkout cashier.
Although “face time” and zoom calls with family, friends and coworkers are nice, it still cannot replace that special feeling that one gets from being in close proximity with someone. In a strange way, we psychologically feed off of each other.

And let’s not forget the kids. During the lockdowns, kids didn’t interact with other children for a year or so and to that end, so much harm was done that cannot be undone by any measure. Kids teach other kids, among other things, how to play and play games which is one of the first steps in fulfilling that destiny of becoming the socialized creature that we are meant to be.
With ai, kids needn’t learn anything of real value but simply stay in their rooms and push buttons which, are far too many doing just that even at this present time.

Whether it is replacing the doorman, the waiter or waitress or even the grocery store cashier with an ai automaton, it’s just another step toward truthfully (to be cliche’) “severing the ties that bind us” as a society.

I agree, but in the past our connection came from neighbors and socializing with classmates. "Shopping" was a chore, not an activity. And few of us ate out when I was a kid...at least for us, I bet it was less than an annual thing. I agree that I get out of the house sometimes and dine out for human interaction. And as a solo diner, I usually strike up a conversation with servers or sometimes fellow diners. When you're a couple you're usually left alone, but flying solo is often an invitation to engage.

But for our society as a whole, my impression is that never used to have the satisfied to this degree through engaging in commerce. Or it could be my age, and that folks continue to go through the stages we all go through and are socializing as much as we did at each age range and I'm just not plugged into it.

Then there's the whole meals & grocery delivery crowd. And prior generations got the need met through church.

 

[Ken Anderson]

And let’s not forget the kids. During the lockdowns, kids didn’t interact with other children for a year or so and to that end, so much harm was done that cannot be undone by any measure. Kids teach other kids, among other things, how to play and play games which is one of the first steps in fulfilling that destiny of becoming the socialized creature that we are meant to be.

That's why I loved it when I went for a walk in the woods during the COVID era and came across a group of kids just doing what kids do. A couple of them had dogs, so I imagined they told their parents they were going to walk the dog, and prearranged some kid time in the woods.