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Tech

Null Futures: 1968’s Internet of Things Was a Motel Automat

A less colorful life, at the push of a button.

"Just sit and think of things you'd like." That's right: no waiters or waiting, just buttons and tiny prepackaged portions of liquor, food units, and, apparently, books. Such was the 1969 repertoire of inroom automats, which were essentially just vending machines hooked up to some central billing computer. A wondrous vision, it seems.

Automats generally are a pretty good example of technology in search of a problem. First unleashed on the world in the very early 1900s, the concept hit a peak sometime in the '50s, or at least that's the era they're most associated with. Consider it the hyperlazy promise of a postwar capitalism that didn't quite know what to do with its hands.

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The general idea is what you see in this video but usually out in public, like an IRL restaurant except staffed by a coin slot: roll up to a machine, drop in some change, and out pops a meal unit, likely a shitty wax paper-wrapped rendition of a light lunch, perhaps a highly stable sandwich unit and a syrupy unit of fruit etc. In the early days, however, you might even get a Salisbury steak unit or other hot food diner item.

The first US automats came from the Horn and Hardart (menu above) chain. Eventually they became fully machine-based, but in the early days it was more like directly interfacing with a kitchen rather than via a traditional server or counterperson. The diner put some money in and the kitchen, staffed by actual cooks or reheaters, spun around some meal. This was a big thing during the depression (it's depressing).

The downfall of automats is likewise depressing. The machines were replaced with people, and the result is what we know as fast food. Now you can get your food units with cheese and minus the pickles, thanks. It's usually a bit warmer too.