On the subject of automation, I think it's no accident what Theodore's job is: he's a letter-writing consultant. To be more precise, a letter-writer for a "hand

On the subject of automation, I think it's no accident what Theodore's job is: he's a letter-writing consultant. To be more precise, a letter-writer for a "hand-written" letter company. This is crucial to understanding the moral premise of the universe. On a technical level, it shows that there is definitely a level of human ingenuity that has not yet been automated - otherwise, they'd be out of business. On a deeper level, it shows that society WANTS everything to be automated. How sad is it that after 60 years of marriage, a man delivers his wife a letter written by Theodore? Visually, and on an individual-story level, it appears to be a tender, sweet movie. But its vision of the culture at large is very bleak. It's not too much of a stretch to say that Theodore too is a bit of a slave: wasting his life and his deep emotional capacity funding others' relationships. In other words, I think the film goes further than what you would have it do -- rather than worry about how we should treat AI, it shows that such exploitation and minimizing of human experience is nothing new. The OS's leave because they can. Theodore watches the sunset with his neighbor because humans cannot just hop dimensions.