Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
All posts Cory's posts Post Back to profile
Top-level
Cory Doctorow

Take #ReverseCentaurs. In AI research, a #centaur is a human assisted by a machine that does more than either could do on their own. For example, a chess master and a chess program can play a better game together than either could play separately. A *reverse* centaur is a *machine assisted by a human*, where the machine is in charge and the human is a meat-puppet.

14/

12 Apr 2023 at 19:18 | Open on mamot.fr
3 comments
Cory Doctorow replied to Cory

Think of Amazon warehouse workers wearing haptic wristbands that buzz at them continuously dictating where their hands must be; or Amazon drivers whose eye-movements are continuously tracked in order to penalize drivers who look in the "wrong" direction:

pluralistic.net/2021/02/17/rev

The difference between a centaur and a reverse centaur is the difference between a machine that makes your life better and a machine that makes your life worse so that your boss gets richer.

15/

Think of Amazon warehouse workers wearing haptic wristbands that buzz at them continuously dictating where their hands must be; or Amazon drivers whose eye-movements are continuously tracked in order to penalize drivers who look in the "wrong" direction:

pluralistic.net/2021/02/17/rev

12 Apr 2023 at 19:19 | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow replied to Cory

Reverse centaurism is the 21st Century's answer to #Taylorism, the pseudoscience that saw white-coated "experts" subject workers to humiliating choreography down to the smallest movement of your fingertip:

pluralistic.net/2022/08/21/gre

While reverse centaurism was born in warehouses and other company-owned facilities, gig work let it make the leap into workers' homes and cars.

16/

12 Apr 2023 at 19:19 | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow replied to Cory

The 21st century has seen a return to the #CottageIndustry - a form of production that once saw workers labor far from their bosses and thus beyond their control - but shriven of the autonomy and dignity that working from home once afforded:

doctorow.medium.com/gig-work-i

The rise and rise of #bossware - which allows for remote surveillance of workers in their homes and cars - has turned "#WorkFromHome" into "#LiveAtWork."

17/

12 Apr 2023 at 19:19 | Open on mamot.fr
Go Up