[dougmccune]

Is a weird SF/Silicon Valley cognitive dissonance required to say that 100% automated software "communication" is "establishing a personal connection"? The fact that an algorithm asks me to come back after I stop frequenting a restaurant doesn't strike me as personal, just kind of overbearing and HAL 9000-esque.

Or a cashier reciting my name after reading it off a prompter. Safeway has been doing that for years and I don't feel a personal connection just because they're tracking my every move and making me well aware of it on a daily basis.

[KaoruAoiShiho]

Because the alternative to automated communication isn't personal communication... it's no communication. Automated communication is still more of a personal connection than no connection.