Tonight I chanced on a post on Twitter about a robot performing room service to deliver items to rooms. Here is why that is not a good idea:
1) Apart from the finesse that comes with a personal touch there are advantages to having a real person on room service. They can spot, deal with and raise the alarm about fires, medical emergencies, suspected trafficking, grooming, missing persons, child and other abuse. They can ask questions and get gut feelings.
2) The robot has replaced the need for a person to do that job, a person who needs money from wages to pay into th economy to live and possibly to support family. More robots = fewer jobs, fewer jobs = more unemployment, more unemployment = more reliance on benefits, food stamps, food banks and the like. It means increased child poverty and lowered opportunity for the next generation but hey, the profit margins and probably returns for shareholders are better.
Keynsian economics and basic common sense tells you that less money goes into the economy from shareholders than from frontline employees and people on benefits and basic wages providing for their families. And that, in a climate of austerity, insecurity and cuts the economy cannot thrive as people are less able to spend or take on economic risk.
I am sure there are more reasons, and there are certainly examples I could list. But I think that should be enough to outweigh perceived convenience. The first reason is also why I won't use self scan options at supermarkets.