The service industry is meant to be the “engine” of our economy, but it’s an engine that businesses seem eager to dispense with. They still charge you for service, but want you to do the work. The trend began with supermarkets, where self-service checkouts have become the norm. Now it has overtaken the airlines, as I found on a recent departure from An airport where I had to check in at a machine, scan my luggage labels and heave my bags onto the weighing scales. Result: a planeload of confused passengers who’d have checked in far sooner had someone done it for them. And the trend seems unstoppable. At petrol stations punters are having to pay by card at the pump. Although it’s all done in the name of “empowering” the customer, it’s really just a way to cut wage bills. In the process it destroys what we most crave in an increasingly online world: “face-to-face interaction with another human being”. (Jane Merrick, The Independent)

By mid-century going out to a romantic restaurant will involve something like this:

You arrive, hang up your own coats yourself and check in on an automated screen that matches your name with your booking. The message on the screen will say, “Good evening. Please proceed to table 32 and collect a tablecloth and a complimentary carnation in a vase to decorate your table”. Once seated, you choose your drink from a wine list, and your food, from the tablet waiting for you on the table. You send the electronic order to the kitchen. Lights can be dimmed by using the tablet. In ten minutes time your food and drink appear at the delivery point across the room, and a message shows up on the tablet: “Thank you for your order. You may now proceed to the service area where your meal is ready for collection”. You rise from the table and go and collect the plates of food and the cutlery. At the end of the meal you press a button marked, “I want to pay” and the invoice appears on the tablet screen. The service charge and local tax is automatically added. You enter your credit card details, collect your coats and you leave. You have seen not a single member of the staff! The kitchen could be staffed by robots, the lights turned out and the building locked, all automatically, at 11p.m.

You think I’m joking?