5 ms·

You jest, but most likely someone at Amazon will read this and think to themselves: "you know...the for-profit private prison industry is ripe for disruption. T

You jest, but most likely someone at Amazon will read this and think to themselves: "you know...the for-profit private prison industry is ripe for disruption. This could be a good lead." Also, what you describe has been done before in history. In the 19th century in the US there were "Pullman Towns" - everything from A to Z owned by the Pullman company. "Get baptized in a Pullman church, go to a Pullman school, work for Pullman all your life, and get buried in a Pullman graveyard." was an activist slogan at the time. (I learned this from history class at university, paraphrasing from memory). More on Pullman Towns here: https://www.pullman-museum.org/theTown/ https://www.pullman-museum.org/theTown/

oliveshell 4y ago
For the curious: besides the Pullman towns, there were many other “company towns” [1] in the United States, owned by various companies [2]. Some of the most exploitive ones were owned by mining firms, as immortalized in the famous protest song “Sixteen Tons”, with its refrain “I owe my soul to the company store”. [3] (This song may be familiar to South Park viewers.) [4] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_towns_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_towns_in_the_U... [3] http://www.protestsonglyrics.net/Labor_Union_Songs/Sixteen-Tons.phtml http://www.protestsonglyrics.net/Labor_Union_Songs/Sixteen-T... [4] https://youtube.com/watch?v=yO9VRtrTJwc https://youtube.com/watch?v=yO9VRtrTJwc
- belfalas 4y ago
  Thank you for pointing that out - yes, Pullman is one of the most famous examples but the issue was rampant during the Industrial Revolution. In a sense we are now re-living that past, call it the "Digital Industrial Revolution."
CamperBob2 4y ago
You jest, but most likely someone at Amazon will read this and think to themselves: "you know...the for-profit private prison industry is ripe for disruption. This could be a good lead." "Good business is where you find it." - Dick Jones, Omni Consumer Products
ewzimm 4y ago
I had those “Pullman Towns” in mind. This type of system opens up obvious opportunities for exploitation, but so do our existing prison systems. If we ever did replace prisons, I think it would involve something like this. Since Amazon Prison is so close to life already, we might all benefit from thinking about how to solve its issues. As the legal system necessitates lawyers, a digital prison might need digital advocates programmed by the prisoner‘s representatives. Could we design a digital jail that could both monitor the prisoner and share privileges? As software introduces more restrictions on our lives, we could benefit from something like an AI “Freedom Box” that represented us while interfacing with proprietary services. People have already made AI lawyers to suggest options. Maybe these could merge with security software to allow us to navigate whatever future prisons we build.
- aj7 4y ago
  How about willfully admitting yourself into the Amazon prison, to build up prison credits. By so doing, you could commit small crimes with impunity, using your already earned credits to skip punishment. Hmm. The rich already commit large crimes, and skip punishment, using MONEY.
  - swampthinker 4y ago
    $5000 in AWS credits if you spend a month in Amazon Prime Prison™
    - bryanrasmussen 4y ago
      Go to Amazon Prime Prison Free for 30 days!
    - jeffbr13 4y ago
      Forgot about that GPU cluster you spun up last month and built up an astronomical AWS bill? Don’t worry, you won’t have to sell a kidney, stay at Amazon Workhouse Services until you've cleared your debt!
      - 4y ago

oliveshell 4y ago

For the curious: besides the Pullman towns, there were many other “company towns” [1] in the United States, owned by various companies [2]. Some of the most exploitive ones were owned by mining firms, as immortalized in the famous protest song “Sixteen Tons”, with its refrain “I owe my soul to the company store”. [3] (This song may be familiar to South Park viewers.) [4] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_towns_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_towns_in_the_U... [3] http://www.protestsonglyrics.net/Labor_Union_Songs/Sixteen-Tons.phtml http://www.protestsonglyrics.net/Labor_Union_Songs/Sixteen-T... [4] https://youtube.com/watch?v=yO9VRtrTJwc https://youtube.com/watch?v=yO9VRtrTJwc

belfalas 4y ago
Thank you for pointing that out - yes, Pullman is one of the most famous examples but the issue was rampant during the Industrial Revolution. In a sense we are now re-living that past, call it the "Digital Industrial Revolution."

CamperBob2 4y ago

ewzimm 4y ago

I had those “Pullman Towns” in mind. This type of system opens up obvious opportunities for exploitation, but so do our existing prison systems. If we ever did replace prisons, I think it would involve something like this. Since Amazon Prison is so close to life already, we might all benefit from thinking about how to solve its issues. As the legal system necessitates lawyers, a digital prison might need digital advocates programmed by the prisoner‘s representatives. Could we design a digital jail that could both monitor the prisoner and share privileges? As software introduces more restrictions on our lives, we could benefit from something like an AI “Freedom Box” that represented us while interfacing with proprietary services. People have already made AI lawyers to suggest options. Maybe these could merge with security software to allow us to navigate whatever future prisons we build.

aj7 4y ago
How about willfully admitting yourself into the Amazon prison, to build up prison credits. By so doing, you could commit small crimes with impunity, using your already earned credits to skip punishment. Hmm. The rich already commit large crimes, and skip punishment, using MONEY.
- swampthinker 4y ago
  $5000 in AWS credits if you spend a month in Amazon Prime Prison™
  - bryanrasmussen 4y ago
    Go to Amazon Prime Prison Free for 30 days!
  - jeffbr13 4y ago
    Forgot about that GPU cluster you spun up last month and built up an astronomical AWS bill? Don’t worry, you won’t have to sell a kidney, stay at Amazon Workhouse Services until you've cleared your debt!
    - 4y ago