Older folks missed out, but that's what time machines are for

When I was a kid in the 1970s, robots were nothing more than the stuff of science fiction, in the realm of something like Star Wars, which was released in the United Kingdom when I was 4 years old. (I vividly remember the boy sitting in the row behind me at the cinema who constantly kicked the back of my seat all the way through the movie.)

Technology has progressed in such leaps and bounds over the past 40 years that adults in the 1970s, such as my grandparents' generation, would be amazed by the convenience and ease it has brought to daily life in the 21st century.

In earlier days, if anyone had suggested there would be such a thing as a shop where you buy things without handing over any cash or dealing with an assistant, they would either think you were barking mad or recommending shoplifting!