Wilbur, enjoyed the "third space" article. I've seen taps not only become the center of a neighborhood, but a building: seems every old warehouse converted to lofts needs a gym and a nano! But it belies what I found most interesting (not necessarily in a good way) in the first article (not beer in space.)
Seems people want variety and new experiences in their 3rd space. But robot brewers (Picobrew Z meets data mining!) are supposed to tweak recipes based your response to what you've already had. No room for innovation or accidental discovery of something you never imagined. No imagination. Pretty bleak future. Like Amazon can tell me I'll like a book based on what I've already read. But in a real bookstore I see something completely random, and no algorithm would know I might like it. Plug it into the the database, sure. But the algorithm will never understand the unforseeable flash that takes you somewhere new. Don't want my beer made that way, or my life.