“But ultimately, you are going to be responsible for providing your own separation from that other traffic, which is the way it is now, with existing control towers. The controllers at these smaller facilities are not vectoring airplanes to turn left or turn right or giving them ground instructions from the ground. They merely issue a conflict alert".

Are you kidding me? Pattern entry instructions, sequencing slow airplanes with fast airplanes, coordinating with the overlying radar facility and the center traffic management, working with snow plows, wildlife (speaking of which with ads-b and decommissioning of radar anennas, geese don't have a transponder, even when they fly in that 30 mile mode c veil), and most importantly, dealing with aircraft in distress.

They will never (in our lifetimes) be able to take the humans out of air traffic control.