Just because a robot can do the same job doesn’t make an activity dehumanizing - you seem to merely be justifying a negative view.

You’re also ignoring that the point of pointing and calling is precisely to keep you from responding robotically if something deviates and to maintain your attention on active control/correction. It’s when you don’t point and call that you respond robotically. Your comment about “cog” gets to what I was calling demeaning: most of the jobs people refer to that way require intelligence and active response that machines can’t really master — they’re being done poorly if you’re just being a “cog in a machine”.

Robots are okay, but they’re not really useful for certain jobs (yet) because they’re either not smart enough, not flexible enough, or too costly to respond intelligently to deviations from the norm. Pointing and calling amplifies that human capacity.

Using motion and language to amplify our natural faculties for best effect at a social purpose sounds pretty human to me.

I’m curious, what activity do you view as not dehumanizing?