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In a kind of counter intuitive argument in this article in The Wall Street Journal , Uber drivers may now have to battle with the fact that no human is actually telling them what to do. Most of the tasks are now being automated. The study by Researchers at the Data and Society research institute at New York University point out that Uber uses software to exert similar control over workers that a human manager would.
The world looks more and more like the Manna short story, where every aspect of our employee life is used to classify our performance. Another interesting discussion point: Is the middle manager role disappearing?
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Meet your New Boss: The Algorithm
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
You are a fluke of the universe; you have no right to be here.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @01:08PM
impartial and with no ego.
also, I can get together with my colleagues and decide if we want the boss to do something differently.
we would only need to fight about this with the share holders, not with the boss.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by mhajicek on Thursday November 05 2015, @01:22PM
http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm [marshallbrain.com]
Nuff said.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1, Redundant) by bart9h on Thursday November 05 2015, @01:24PM
there's a scifi short story about something like that:
http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm [marshallbrain.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @01:47PM
Did you both just link to the Manna shortstory, referenced in the summary?
(Score: 4, Funny) by bart9h on Thursday November 05 2015, @07:02PM
Ain't nobody has the time to read the entire summary!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @07:05PM
You don't like the Manna story? It sounds like too good of a boss? Well here is the future boss we are trying to build.
http://hermiene.net/short-stories/i_have_no_mouth.html [hermiene.net]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by geb on Thursday November 05 2015, @02:00PM
How's that supposed to work in the specific example given. Can Uber drivers collectively tell the Uber app that it is doing a bad job and demand changes in working conditions?
Uber is not a workers commune. It's going to be very rare to find any workplace that does fit that model.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @02:52PM
open source it and fight it out on github.
my point was that it all comes down to who controls the algorithm.
as of right now, it is unlikely than any algorithm will fit the job of a boss in most situations, since improvisation is needed.
however, for specific tasks algorithms will be better than a human, and in fact the human "bosses" are actually just following an algorithm.
in the case of uber, it makes sense that they're using an algorithm to estimate which driver can go pick up which order, since computers are getting better at this sort of thing. the ideal boss would simply do the same thing that an algorithm can do now.
example: self-driving cars. in the old days, train engines needed a few people to work, and one of them told the others at what rate to put coal in the fire. a self-driving car is driven by an algorithm that could most likely handle a train as well, and if it were a coal-based engine it would literally tell people what to do.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @02:09PM
No you can't, because the people controlling access to the shareholders have blind faith in the algorithm. You and your colleagues will be fired and replaced with obedient drones that execute the tasks they are given without any question.
Befhel ist befhel!