Sat, May 31, 2025 14:07

May 31, 2025 · 1 min read
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I came across some articles examining how automation is impacting South Korea’s mass food catering, specifically school lunches and highway restaurants. I really enjoy eating healthy and inexpensive meals at places like these. But this also means that they are facing significant challenges because of labour shortages and rising costs.

A Rest of the World investigation explores automation in highway restaurants. A key takeaway from this article is that automation is influencing not only food preparation but also the menu, with a shift towards dishes easily prepared by machines. Workers’ duties also evolve to include robot monitoring, restocking, and similar responsibilities.

A different perspective on robots in school cafeterias is provided by The Korea Herald, focusing less on criticism and more on the companies that make them. My takeaway from both articles is that these technologies offer help with repetitive work, heavy lifting, and dangerous tasks, thus protecting humans from risks such as cuts and burns. However, I hope the food keeps some unique human touches and varied recipes, instead of becoming standardized everywhere.

Wouter Van Rossem
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Wouter Van Rossem
Wouter Van Rossem is a researcher on the intersection between social science and computer science. He previously worked on the European Research Council (ERC) funded project, Processing Citizenship, where he investigated how data infrastructures for population processing co-produce citizens, Europe, and territory. He completed his PhD at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and is still working on publications stemming from these impactful projects. In addition to his academic pursuits as a PhD at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, he brings a diverse background as a software engineer, having worked in various companies and at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Italy. His diverse background, spanning both theoretical and hands-on knowledge, reflects his keen interest in exploring the intricate interconnections between technology and society.