No, robots are everywhere.

China is at a weird part of its demographic curve and its economic curve - where a manufacturing base (subsidised by global trade, FX policy and so on) is meeting a declining workforce and robots are literally cheaper than humans (for some parts of urban China. Rural areas still … not great)

I am not sure it’s the future for everywhere, or even china.

But it’s cool

Edit: this applies to some urban areas only not all, or even any rural areas. But still those urban areas in China are de facto countries, larger than many modern countries and pretty much anything in human history.

The only interesting one in that article was the convenience store robot and that was them all that couldn't pick up one of the items from the shelves and human employee had to retrieve it manually. In Las Vegas, there's a robot bartender bar that's empty, except for a security guard. No one can afford to go to Las Vegas Strip anymore. The real difference is the positivity documented in the article. my perception is that the US population feels like they're having AI forced upon them, and that they will lose their jobs and starve. The bleeding edge of robot tech technologies is still not able to fold your laundry reliably and quickly for a reasonable price. That doesn't mean they're not happening, but that is the "it" we are all waiting for. It is extremely not a solved problem. But once it is, then we're in trouble. That's when technology has advanced to the point that we are in trouble if we don't figure out what's coming next.

What is the goal of society? To keep existing? Jerry Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that organizations contain those dedicated to the actual goals of the group and those dedicated to the organization itself.

Humanity and society has lost its way. There is no real goal. Mars, maybe? Some rich assholes maybe, but that's no goal for the proles.

Humanity needs a goal. Cognitive evolution should be that goal. Finding the smartest people and supporting them to the best of their abilities, and for them to have children. Without them being unsufferable egotistical assholes, mind you. The future is brighter than we imagine. The machine minds cannot hope to eclipse the human brain. LLMs do not feel joy how a human does. We seek to make humans smarter. Both in somatic and germline ways.