自动化餐厅意味着什么

Even though a quinoa-based vegetarian¹ bowl is not my idea of the ideal workday lunch, I am excited to check out the restaurant Eatsa the next time I am in San Francisco. It is a restaurant without employees.

尽管藜麦素食饭并不是我理想的工作餐，但我很高兴可以在下次去旧金山时见识一下Eatsa餐厅。那是一家没有员工的餐厅。

To be more precise, no visible ones. There is a staff of five or six cooks assembling the bowls, but they work completely behind the scenes. The typical customer interacts with zero Eatsa employees on a typical visit: she orders and pays via a smartphone or tablet, then picks up her food from a cubbyhole displaying her name. Prices are low, and initial reviews are quite good.

说得更准确些，是没有看得见的员工。餐厅里有五六个厨师配餐，但是他们完全在后厨工作。就餐时，通常顾客不会与Eatsa的任何员工互动：顾客通过智能手机或者平板电脑点餐并付款，然后从显示其姓名的餐架上取餐。价格低廉，初期评价都相当好。

Is this just an updated version of the old automats, with iPads replacing coin slots, or is it something more? There are indications that Eatsa’s founders² want it to be the start of something genuinely new: a close to 100 per cent automated³ restaurant. Food preparation there is highly optimised and standardised, and it is probably no coincidence that the location’s first general manager had a background in robotics.

这究竟只是用iPad取代了投币口的旧式自动售货机的升级版，还是不止如此？有迹象表明，Eatsa的创始人希望它开启一种全新的事物——接近100%自动化的餐厅。那里的备餐工作高度优化且流程标准化，而且Eatsa第一任经理拥有机器人学背景这一点很可能并非巧合。

But the fact that the restaurant’s “front of house” (ie the dining area and customer interactions) are virtually 100 per cent automated is more interesting to me than the question of whether the “back of house” (the kitchen) ever will be. Interesting because as front of house automation spreads, it is going to put to the test one of the most widely held notions about work in the coming age of automation: that there will always be lots of service jobs because we desire a lot of human interaction.

但是，对我来说，餐厅的“前台”区域（即就餐区及顾客互动区）几乎100%的自动化要比“后厨”是否将实现自动化有趣得多。有趣之处在于，随着前台自动化的普及，关于在即将到来的自动化时代中的就业的最普遍观念之一将承受考验，这个观念认为总会有许多的服务类工作，因为我们渴望大量的人际互动。

I agree with the second half of that statement, but I am not so sure about the first. We are a deeply social species and even an introvert⁴ like me enjoys spending time with friends and loved ones in the physical world. I have also learnt to value business lunches and dinners (even though I would rather be off by myself reading or writing) because they are an important part of how work advances.

我同意该观点的后面一半，但是我对前半部分并不确定。我们是高度社会化的物种，即使像我这样内向的人也很享受在现实世界里与朋友和爱人共度的时光。我也学会了看重商业午餐和晚餐（即便我宁愿自己一个人看书或写东西），因为它们是推进工作的重要部分。

But in the great majority of cases, when I am out I do not value the interactions with the waiting staff and other service workers. They are not unpleasant or terribly burdensome, but they do get in the way of what I want from the restaurant experience: to eat well and to talk to my tablemates. Listening to a recitation of the specials, getting the paper bill and handing off a credit card and learning the server’s name (this happens in America) are distractions⁵ from my restaurant experience, not additions to it.

但是，在绝大多数情况下，当我外出时，我并不重视与侍者和其他服务人员的互动。这些互动过程并非令人不快或特别累人，但确实妨碍了我想要得到的用餐体验——吃得好并且和共同进餐者聊天。听侍者背招牌菜、拿到账单、交出信用卡、记住侍者的名字（这种情况出现在美国）都会干扰我的用餐体验，而不是锦上添花。

Do most people feel the same, most of the time? I do not know, and I doubt there has been any good way of knowing until now, because technology was not mature or cheap enough to enable smooth and cost-effective automation of many service interactions.

多数人在多数情况下的感觉都是这样吗？我不知道，我也怀疑目前为止有什么好办法来搞清楚这个问题，因为技术还不成熟或者还没便宜到保证服务业互动拥有顺畅且成本划算的自动化体验。