We are told to stay at home, to avoid any contact. But we need to shop to be able to have breakfast and to cook. My wife and I tried to get home delivery from Whole Foods, but obviously many others got the same idea. No delivery spots were open, so are we forced to go there. And we need to go to other shops too. Shopping is scary these days. Too many people are there, are they infected? And what about the other customers?
It would help if we would had more robots. What if we could order food from a robot shop which would be delivered by drones? Robots don´t get sick. They don´t spread the diseases, they don´t strike, they are trustworthy & reliable.
I think the whole economy will change in the coming months - and it has to. We don`t know how long the virus will be around and - even if COVID-19 goes away - when the next pandemic might come. The automation process - which has been going on for more than a century - will suddenly accelerate. Automation has been lifting labor productivity for a long time which has led to climbing standards of living and more convenience. We will soon get many more machines. Amazon is already using some robots in their distribution centers and has opened shops which are fully automated - called Amazon Go. There are no lines, no checkouts, and no staff who could be endangered or endanger their customers. Other will follow, and maybe even overtake Amazon.
Today there is still a lot of resistance against the robotization. There are lot technophobes around. Luddites want to block the use of automates and hillbillies are shooting at drones. But I expect that the COVID-19-crisis will change the sentiment. Technology - including the Internet which is run by software - is making our life much easier. E-commerce, video-conferencing, home-learning and many other automated online services are helping us through the crisis. I think the crisis could temper the anti-tech sentiment and moderate regulation against drones, self driving cars and other robots.
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