Why are the shoes manufactured in China if no humans are necessary to do so? The primary reason to do manufacturing in low-wage countries now seems to be just that: low wages. Take out the need to pay wages and it makes a lot of sense to manufacture locally to save on shipping costs (and maybe even do things like manufacturing to order instead of keeping stock).
Why “lonely?” This sounds lovely to me. The main cost of most goods is the labor, and by eliminating that you drive the marginal cost way down (and as another poster observes, when the cost of labor is eliminated, why ship finished goods long distances?)<p>And this will leave more time for people to spend with each other instead of in drudgery,
<i>Creating, selling, transporting and buying consumer goods such as casual footwear now requires just one significant human—the consumer—plus an individual here and there to oversee assembly and repair robots. Many of the basics we buy are now constructed, bought, and shipped with no one besides the customer ever laying eyes on them.</i><p>Just to complete the story, <i>there is no consumer</i> because nobody has a job, so there's no reason to create consumer goods in the first place.
"Creating, selling, transporting and buying consumer goods such as casual footwear now requires just one significant human—the consumer—plus an individual here and there to oversee assembly and repair robots."<p>I've said (half-jokingly) to my friends that in the future, recommendation systems will know so much about us and be so accurate that we won't even need to make many purchasing decisions anymore. They will make the decisions that we would have made anyway.
"The sneakers' trip from a southern Chinese footwear factory begins on July 5, 2036, and ends on Caitlin’s doorstep 18 weeks later"<p>18 weeks? Stuff that. The sneakers will be printed on demand at a local fab and delivered by drone within the hour.
The main thing I'd want to know is which false incentives are in the system, eg. subsides, bribes. Those are things that can really be disrupted by the stroke of a pen. If this is the naturally optimal way to build things at scale, then I'm all for it. Also, rail and ship costs are marginally low, but it's hard to get past the visuals created by picturing the vehicles themselves (ie. it's a marketing problem).
This "futurist prediction" assumes that there will be no more innovation in footwear other than supply chain optimization and no desire for craftsmanship.<p>Moreover, the kinds of "self driving vehicle" software it is predicting are kind of assuming a new kind of software that doesn't have bugs (what happens on your unmanned container ship when something goes awry?).
>> The Lonely Future of Buying Stuff<p>Where the Author says Lonely, I say Wonderful....<p>The less interaction I have with people to get the things I need/want the better.<p>The day I can have all my food, groceries, and Computer parts delivered by Drone after ordering them on my phone is a day I will be happy.