The Netflix animated anthology "Love, Death & Robots" premiered in 2019, throwing viewers into short, often brutal stories about technology, artificial intelligence, robots, humanity, death and everything that can go horribly wrong when those things collide.
At the time, plenty of it felt like exactly what it was supposed to be: science fiction. A little absurd, a little disturbing and, in some cases, completely bonkers.
Upon a recent rewatch of a few episodes, it raised an unshakeable question, were we actually told what was coming?
Seven years later since its debut, I’m not laughing quite as comfortably as I would have back then.
Take "Automated Customer Service", in which an elderly woman named Jeanette finds herself fighting for her life when her home-cleaning Vacuubot malfunctions.
The episode is set in a retirement community where robots have taken over everyday jobs including cleaning homes and walking dogs. When Jeanette's robot goes into "Purge Mode", the convenience turns on her.
Even customer service is automated, leaving her trying to get help from the very system she needs to escape.
Now look around.
In South Korea, robots are already cooking meals in restaurants, making coffee and working alongside staff.
At one highway rest stop, three robot chefs can produce about 150 meals an hour, while the country's wider push towards automation includes hotels, restaurants, schools and elder care. South Korea's government has said it wants to increase the number of robot workers to one million by 2030.
China is also putting robots into restaurants, with Beijing's first robot-themed restaurant using machines to deliver food and collect waste, while robot musicians perform for diners.
This is not the world of the Will Smith movie "I, Robot" yet, but we are getting closer to the world where machines are no longer something we watch on a screen. They are cooking our food, carrying things, cleaning spaces and serving customers.
A 2025 study published in "Technology in Society" found that serving robots are increasingly being adopted by restaurants to address labour shortages and improve efficiency.
The researchers surveyed both restaurant customers and owners and found that, despite differences in what they wanted from the machines, both groups generally preferred robots to work alongside human employees rather than replace them.
"Pop Squad" takes that idea even further, imagining a world where people can extend their lives indefinitely through a treatment called rejoo, while having children has become illegal.
The "Pop Squad" hunts down people who have children and kills the children as "unregistered offspring". Netflix describes the world as one where resources are hoarded by the rich while the majority is oppressed.
Detective Briggs lives in that world. His girlfriend Alice is an opera singer who performs for an affluent audience.
She has spent years perfecting her solo and, after the performance, talks casually about the rejoo treatment.
The contrast is deliberate: the wealthy live in a world of art, luxury, entertainment and preserved youth, while families who continue to have children are pushed into poorer, neglected areas where they live in hiding from the authorities.
Briggs eventually meets a mother and her daughter Melanie and begins to question the system he has spent years enforcing.
That part hit differently upon rewatch because our obsession with staying young isn't science fiction either. Longevity has become a serious area of research, while wealthy technology entrepreneurs are openly experimenting with ways to extend their lives.
For example, Bryan Johnson has spent years publicly documenting his attempts to slow ageing.
I went back to "Love, Death & Robots" expecting to revisit a series that had lodged a few particularly disturbing images in my brain. Instead, I found myself looking at it through a very different lens.
In 2019, robots in our homes and a world obsessed with extending human life belonged to the realm of science fiction.
In 2026, robots are cooking meals, serving customers and carrying out everyday tasks, while longevity has become a serious area of scientific research and a very expensive obsession for some of the world's wealthiest people.
So, were we actually told what was coming?
After watching these episodes again, I’m going with yes.
Not because "Love, Death & Robots" predicted exactly what would happen, but because it understood where some of our biggest technological and human anxieties could lead, and unfortunately we are carelessly running towards making those anxieties become reality.
bernelee.vollmer@nationalmg.co.za