While I agree with much of the article, I think the following points were not sufficiently explored:

1. I got the impression that he felt this "fauxtomation" was the final iteration of any service practicing it.

To me, "fauxtomation" follows a fairly established startup methodology of doing things manually before automating. It allows sufficient time for engineers to observe the full scope before attempting to automate. In addition, it is provided as a sort of API to the end user while true automation efficiencies can be implemented incrementally with the in-house team.

The end goal of these services is almost certainly full automation. To a greater extent, I suspect this is the intended future of entire gig economies ("fauxtomation" at scale) created by the likes of Uber and DoorDash who are pushing for further advancements in technology to replace the comparatively high cost of human labor.

2. Where was the "partial automation" alternative to "full automation" in this article?

It seems that most of the described technologies fall short because the scope is too big. They do not allowing enough flexibility for fixing (and learning from) errors or accommodating unplanned use-cases. If a product (like self-service checkout) typically requires training for an employee to use properly, it is not ready for the average consumer.

I have heard the following quote used frequently:

> What can be automated, should be automated.

What is not given enough airtime is the inverse:

> What cannot be automated, should not be automated.

The immediate future is more cyborg than robot. A modern website is an assortment of modular APIs glued together. Some have referred to smartphones as a human appendage, and I think this is the proper analogy to view technology as a whole over the next decade: upgrades rather than replacements to our biological limitations.

Instead of replacing an entire industry with an industry-sized vending machine, large amounts of untrained workers will slowly be replaced by a smaller amount of trained practitioners who know how to use better tools. What this will mean for society as a whole, though, is anyone's guess.

user:	natemo
created:	February 4, 2021
karma:	6