Marketplace's Technology Series: "Robots Ate My Job"

If you listen to APM's Martketplace at all then you've probably heard some of their stories within their "Robots Ate My Job" series. It has been a lot of fun and I've particularly enjoyed David Brancaccio's trip across America with no human contact. He made his final observations on today's episode and ends on the following note: 

It’s a lot of time to ponder existance sitting behind the wheel for that long. And I’ve got to take a vow of abstinence moving forward. I’m talking about some technological abstinence. It may not be that robots are eating my journey, it’s my own compulsion, really, to bury myself in technology. That’s got to change. I got to add some more real-life conversations to the general mix, pull my head out of the iPad screen and my smart phone and all that stuff. I mean, there’s a large country and a large world around us, and too often this technology just absorbs too much of our attention.

Interestingly, after attempting what should have been a virtually frictionless experience (an exaggerated form of his media-filled life before the project), he  decides that a bit of friction would do him good. I strongly suggest checking out some of the related articles and following David's road-trip journal. 


((As a side note, I also tuned in to hear about the automated cupcake robot in Beverly Hills and appreciated that the journalist, after trying out the machine for her producer, preferred to experience the friction of sight, scent, and perhaps even longer waits and lines when choosing her dessert.))