When it comes to all those automated systems we have to navigate– do any of them work so well that those making money from them in fact utilize them? Naturally not.
In Marc Andreessen’s unforgettable expression, “software application is eating the world.” Sadly, it now has indigestion. Software is encountering limitations that (non-engineer) promoters either deny or downplay. Meanwhile, back in the real life, software application has a restricted function in filling structural shortages of physical products and numerous services.
Think about all those apps which are expected to be the embodiment of automated performance: if software application is so terrific, then why do the apps require thousdands of ghost employees to keep the kludgy mess semi-functional? Concealed behind the shiny delighted exterior of automated software wonderland, countless improperly paid human beings need to do the tough bits that software stops working to do or fails to do effectively.
The Ghost Employees in the Device: Companies cheapen them, and customers seldom understand they exist. However the apps and companies that millions of us depend on, like Uber and Amazon, could not operate without the undetectable, low-wage labor of “ghost employees.”
Silicon Valley’s Shadow: The Ghost Employees Behind Amazon, Google, and Microsoft: An undetectable, on-demand workforce supports everything from Facebook to Uber and beyond with project-based tasks– and has little to reveal for it.
The vision of software eating the world is part and parcel of the engaging fantasy that humans will quickly be free from the drudgery of work and scarcity and indulge in near-infinite abundance due to techno-magic. Those most taken by this vision are never ever the ones trying to keep the software and robotics from stopping working, due to the fact that those laboring to keep the whole mess from collapsing know the limits are even more real than the magical-thinking ehthusiasts understand.
The list of problems that have actually been “close to being fixed” every year is rather lengthy. Automated oversight of social networks content by the caring care of AI (artificial intelligence)? Well, yes, sure– however then what are those tens of countless human beings scanning millions of posts and images doing for Facebook et al? Earning money low wages for a hellish task for no reason? No, the AI (whatever that catch-phrase in fact indicates) can’t resolve the truly hard problems, in spite of claims to the contrary.
Self-driving cars and trucks are here! Well, nearly, type of, with a couple of exceptions … Besides failing in novel circumstances where bad weather condition or other typical occurrances manifest, it works fantastic. Well, sort of, however we’re close, really close … and so as long as the Internet never ever goes down, and the sensing units never ever fail, and the creek doesn’t rise– it works terrific.
The huge facilities required to make all this function is seldom discussed. It’s not just a matter of the onboard sensing units and equipment never stopping working; the Internet, GPS, electrical grid, etc, all need to operate completely for all the software application to work. This is referred to as a reliance chain and software is at the very end of a long and inherently delicate chain.
When it comes to all those automated systems we need to navigate– do any of them work so well that those benefiting from them actually utilize them? Of course not. Do you believe the mega-millionaires raking in the profits from stripping out costs and offshoring ghost-work really utilize the wretched software application systems their monopolies and cartels trouble the rest of us? Obviously not; they have their PA, nanny, motorist, gig employees, etc take care of whatever they require performed in real time in the real life. It’s the rest of us to are required to put up with their dysfunctional, frustratingly inept software “paradise.”
So when the grid goes down for lack of real-world energy, let’s all cheer how software application is going to provide us endless abundance. But we’ll have to do all the cheerleading personally due to the fact that the Web decreased, too.
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