Is our belief in labor-saving machines dysfunctional?

We’ll use cars to drive two blocks instead of walking. We’ll take elevators one floor, instead of using the stairs. We’ll use a dustbuster to suck up a little bit of schmutz instead of a broom and dustpan.

And what about the future? People imagine robots doing every little thing for us, so we can spend our days lying in the VR machines virtually interacting with other people. There will be a machine to wash us; a machine to cook for us; a machine to take us to the bathroom when we are disabled. Will we even have machines to exercise for us?

Is this idea of saving labor a utopia or a dystopia? Do you want to live in a world mediated by machines? Have we already gone too far? Or do we need to go even further? If so, in what way?