[Unseelie]

That said, the point stands that its actually getting easier to build machines to do the thinking work than the work requiring highly articulate hands: Cotton piking may be out, but sandwitch making is rather hard to conquer.

[kovar]

We've conquered sushi making with machines - http://sushi-master.com/usa/index4.html . I don't think sandwiches are all that more difficult. Someone patented one in '73 - http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3762306.html

[gentschev]

Really? I actually think sandwich making will be dead easy within 10 years. You just need a robot arm that can recognize and manipulate ingredients that costs less than maybe $300k.

[Unseelie]

Three hundred Thousand?

Assuming the 300k is the total cost of the machine, that's replacing, in a shop open 16 hours a day, 365 days a year, a machine that lives for over six years.

Six years, without maintenance...

Furthermore, a small sandwitch shop (a subway franchise) is worth only 90 to 300 thousand dollars. You're suggesting adding a machine worth the cost of the entire shop, on a very high end shop.

You may be able to build an arm that can make sandwitches, but selling it to firms over cheap minimum wage labor (which is easily replaceable and already has all the software necessary for the process...