3 ms·

OP:> "I know there was this 10-minute period where I totally look like I'm a bad employee — but really, I'm a good employee." > Will there be a partially priva

OP:> "I know there was this 10-minute period where I totally look like I'm a bad employee — but really, I'm a good employee." > Will there be a partially private middle class, a fully tracked underclass and a mostly private upper class etc. Almost 3 decades ago I was doing a consulting gig for a telecomm in Austin. It was a call center and turned out that the operators were on a strict bathroom regiment, timed down to the seconds. After the shock was over, realization of the just how disjoint is the life experience for even contempories in the same society hit me. It was clear to me that this sort of micromanagement and assertion of control is directly correlated with socio-economic standing. 30 years later and we have JPMorgan employees -- that woman quoted likely went to an ivy league -- pleading for understanding for a "10 minute" activity. (!) This commoditization of the 'educated but financially dependent class' is relatively new and imo reflects the economic-technical paradigm shift. The battle lines are already drawn and blows are already being exchanged over at WFH and BigBrother@Work frontlines. > a mostly private upper class As for WFH, we hear that execs at these companies still wfh. We don't know to what extent they are also surveilled but it would be surprising if c-suite was being monitored by IT security. A bifurcated humanity is imho a very likely future unless there are major global events that disrupt the current (aggregate trends) curve.

ethbr0 3y ago
At the end of the day, it's power that stratifies life experience. Wealth is just the most obvious summary of power in capitalist societies. Controlling the means of production (or, say, housing) is also power. Historically, the worst excesses were prevented by labor having its own inherent power: farms didn't get harvested without labor. As we've moved further away from inherent power in every human (i.e. to industrialization, then knowledge work), that leaves a lot of people with little to no power. And when you have none, people can exploit the hell out of you. Personally, that's why I think UBI is going to be a required bandaid on the system -- you're going to have to afford people some level of "I will not willfully enslave myself to you, even if I don't have any skills / education." Otherwise Amazon warehouses are going to seem free and quaint.
nologic01 3y ago
What is fun to contemplate is that the very top of the pyramid is also tracked - but in a covert, unacknowledged manner. So the true privacy goldilocks regime might be just at the bottom of the top pyramid - important enough not to be a 24/7 monitored number but not too important to receive individual "attention". Just joking. The potency of the digital realm is such that fully adaptive algorithmic surveillance will anihilate any constraints linked to historical practices. > A bifurcated humanity is imho a very likely future unless there are major global events that disrupt the current (aggregate trends) curve. It is depressing to be living through that transition. It blows up the illusion that society is somehow destined to progress.
supertrope 3y ago
That's the difference between a profession and non-professional work. Professionals are able to maintain minimum quality standards often through licenses, have some cultural authority as exerts in their domain, and through their membership in a guild exert influence on the nature of the work. Businesses are in an eternal march to lower costs. Licenses limit labor supply. Brand value substitutes for expert knowledge. Jobs are systematically deskilled until a professional can be replaced with someone off the street, and from there simplified until the lowest quality worker can't mess it up.

ethbr0 3y ago

At the end of the day, it's power that stratifies life experience. Wealth is just the most obvious summary of power in capitalist societies. Controlling the means of production (or, say, housing) is also power. Historically, the worst excesses were prevented by labor having its own inherent power: farms didn't get harvested without labor. As we've moved further away from inherent power in every human (i.e. to industrialization, then knowledge work), that leaves a lot of people with little to no power. And when you have none, people can exploit the hell out of you. Personally, that's why I think UBI is going to be a required bandaid on the system -- you're going to have to afford people some level of "I will not willfully enslave myself to you, even if I don't have any skills / education." Otherwise Amazon warehouses are going to seem free and quaint.

nologic01 3y ago

What is fun to contemplate is that the very top of the pyramid is also tracked - but in a covert, unacknowledged manner. So the true privacy goldilocks regime might be just at the bottom of the top pyramid - important enough not to be a 24/7 monitored number but not too important to receive individual "attention". Just joking. The potency of the digital realm is such that fully adaptive algorithmic surveillance will anihilate any constraints linked to historical practices. > A bifurcated humanity is imho a very likely future unless there are major global events that disrupt the current (aggregate trends) curve. It is depressing to be living through that transition. It blows up the illusion that society is somehow destined to progress.

supertrope 3y ago

That's the difference between a profession and non-professional work. Professionals are able to maintain minimum quality standards often through licenses, have some cultural authority as exerts in their domain, and through their membership in a guild exert influence on the nature of the work. Businesses are in an eternal march to lower costs. Licenses limit labor supply. Brand value substitutes for expert knowledge. Jobs are systematically deskilled until a professional can be replaced with someone off the street, and from there simplified until the lowest quality worker can't mess it up.