Author of the article here. Ironically the first draft of this post hit a lot more on the point that the mere concept of automation is broken (hence the title,

Author of the article here. Ironically the first draft of this post hit a lot more on the point that the mere concept of automation is broken (hence the title, The Jetsons Fallacy). Today's smart home solutions look more like universal remotes. The motion sensors, computer vision, and other sensor arrays create a system of false positives that need to be baby sat more than our old (analog) systems. This is a regression, and it will be many years before the tech is ready to move forward. While I agree with the example you presented about dimming your lights when a movie starts, think about the use cases, and how horribly unpredictable we as humans are. Instead I think home automation should focus on solvable problems that don't predict your behavior, but complement it.