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beej71 2 days ago

In Seattle airport there's one of those McDonald's that has you order from the touch-screen booth and then pick up at the counter. (Maybe they're all like that now?) Just so dystopian to my eye. It didn't help that I was reading Mona Lisa Overdrive at the time. :)

I know fast food employees typically don't give a fuck (I was one way back) but there's always been something about a human being being there that I fundamentally appreciated about the experience.

[Cue the Carl's Jr ordering scene in Idiocracy]

And that counts double for the food being made. I don't want to hang the soulless robot painting in my house; I don't want to consume the soulless robot food. Even the teen just aching to get through his shift can't avoid imparting humanity to their work. If the burger is off-kilter, a person did that, and that's different than when an unsensing, unfeeling bot does.

[Cue the burger reveal scene from Falling Down]

But I'm old, so... you young whippersnappers and all that. Maybe it's different.