Beyond convenience, we must build for connection

Coming to your door: This undated photo shows delivery robot ‘Rice’ using a lift in China. Rice can navigate through different floors of a building and even use the lift by itself. — China Daily/Asia News Network

DURING a visit to China in July, I ordered something while staying in a hotel. I expected to collect it from the lobby. Instead, a small robot entered the lift, travelled to my floor, and stopped directly outside my room. It even called me through the guest phone in my room! It was efficient, polite in its own mechanical way and wonderfully convenient.

Yet after I closed the door, a thought popped up: if almost everything can come to us, what reasons will we have to go out?