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Zuboff's distinction between automating and informating parallels Baudrillard's discussion of "robots and automata" as representatives of two different uses of technology (1983). Though the overlap of terms is a little confusing, the parallel between Baurdillard's and Zuboff's schemes is exact: robotic technologies displace human workers while automata augment their abilities.
I used this distinction in my critique (1989) of Joyce's hypertext fiction afternoon, arguing that hypertext systems which do not allow what Nelson was later to call "free and knowing user movement" might have limited value for the future.