
The Surreal, Cyborg Future of Telemarketing (2013) - tshtf
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/almost-human-the-surreal-cyborg-future-of-telemarketing/282537/?single_page=true
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TeMPOraL
Well, if it reduces the number of telemarketing jobs available, that's a win
for everyone. But it would be much, much better to ban telemarketing already.
It's one of the most shameful occupations ever invented. And it's not because
they're annoying - that I could live with - it's because most of those calls
are literally trying to defraud people. Not having that many low-paid,
stressed out people forced into cheating other human beings is a start, but
not cheating people in the first place is what we should be aiming for.

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mikehollinger
I get these about once per month at work; I've experienced the "break in"
where a person "steps in" and clarifies something that's off-script. There
doesn't seem to be a "take me off your list" response; they typically hang up
immediately.

What's interesting here is probably the growing data set that they -must- have
by now. You could argue that Facebook's "M" is on the same spectrum of
technology, leading toward a fully-automated voice response unit.

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xsmasher
The obvious solution is to fight back with bots.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/](https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/)

