Howdy;
PFast died here in the US... The trials at DFW showed that it had bugs and without a LOT of money thrown at it to just make it as good as the controllers. Now that said, the other portions of CTAS do work very nicely and are used daily. However, the FAA found that CTAS like any other bit of automation isn't one size fits all. The found that it had to be tailored for each site to make it work correctly. It was like writing new software for each facility with only the core engine being the same.
As to what was written in the Journal of ATC, you have to remember that most of that stuff is written by the contractors who are trying to sell the stuff, by the contractors who are trying to advise the different agencies what they need, and then by folks who are working for the agencies and who want to retire and go work for the contractors <G>... They seldom publish the stuff that we have come up with that talks about some of the bunk that they have put out <G>..
As to computers eventually doing our job. Sure it will happen some day. I am convinced that someone is going to develop a computer and software to go with it that will mimic the human thinking function and do it well. I have faith in man to make that achievement. I however know that today we aren't there, and I will NOT see it in my carear. I also know that we will see in the not so distant future frieght carriers go to UAV's and passenger carriers go to one pilot operations. People say never, but think again, it wasn't all that long ago that we flew with four man crews then down to three and now two. Automation took over those other two positions. If you have a computer flying the plane, then you only need one person to monitor everything. It is going to happen and passengers will be ready for it in due course.
regards
Scott