#the white AND blue collar workers in tech
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its so funny when influencers are like they do not pay us enough to live! like aww i’m so sorry for you that you can’t make a living making stupid fucking videos on social media. get a real fucking job
#its not a labor issue the labor issue is the actual employees of the actual company that are worked to the bone to keep these platforms#up and operating and get paid dust#the white AND blue collar workers in tech
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"Don't spy on a privacy lab" (and other career advice for university provosts)
This is a wild and hopeful story: grad students at Northeastern successfully pushed back against invasive digital surveillance in their workplace, through solidarity, fearlessness, and the bright light of publicity. It’s a tale of hand-to-hand, victorious combat with the “shitty technology adoption curve.”
What’s the “shitty tech adoption curve?” It’s the process by which oppressive technologies are normalized and spread. If you want to do something awful with tech — say, spy on people with a camera 24/7 — you need to start with the people who have the least social capital, the people whose objections are easily silenced or overridden.
That’s why all our worst technologies are first imposed on refugees -> prisoners -> kids -> mental patients -> poor people, etc. Then, these technologies climb the privilege gradient: blue collar workers -> white collar workers -> everyone. Following this pathway lets shitty tech peddlers knock the rough edges off their wares, inuring us all to their shock and offense.
https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/21/great-taylors-ghost/#solidarity-or-bust
20 years ago, if you ate dinner under the unblinking eye of a CCTV, it was because you were housed in a supermax prison. Today, it’s because you were unwise enough to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for “home automation” from Google, Apple, Amazon or another “luxury surveillance” vendor.
Northeastern’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC) is home to the “Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute,” where grad students study the harms of surveillance and the means by which they may be reversed. If there’s one group of people who are prepared to stand athwart the shitty tech adoption curve, it is the CPI grad students.
Which makes it genuinely baffling that Northeastern’s Senior Vice Provost for Research decided to install under-desk heat sensors throughout ISEC, overnight, without notice or consultation. The provost signed the paperwork that brought the privacy institute into being.
Students throughout ISEC were alarmed by this move, but especially students on the sixth floor, home to the Privacy Institute. When they demanded an explanation, they were told that the university was conducting a study on “desk usage.” This rang hollow: students at the Privacy Institute have assigned desks, and they badge into each room when they enter it.
As Privacy Institute PhD candidate Max von Hippel wrote, “Reader, we have assigned desks, and we use a key-card to get into the room, so, they already know how and when we use our desks.”
https://twitter.com/maxvonhippel/status/1578048837746204672
So why was the university suddenly so interested in gathering fine-grained data on desk usage? I asked von Hippel and he told me: “They are proposing that grad students share desks, taking turns with a scheduling web-app, so administrators can take over some of the space currently used by grad students. Because as you know, research always works best when you have to schedule your thinking time.”
That’s von Hippel’s theory, and I’m going to go with it, because the provost didn’t offer a better one in the flurry of memos and “listening sessions” that took place after the ISEC students arrived at work one morning to discover sensors under their desks.
This is documented in often hilarious detail in von Hippel’s thread on the scandal, in which the university administrators commit a series of unforced errors and the grad students run circles around them, in a comedy of errors straight out of “Animal House.”
https://twitter.com/maxvonhippel/status/1578048652215431168
After the sensors were discovered, the students wrote to the administrators demanding their removal, on the grounds that there was no scientific purpose for them, that they intimidated students, that they were unnecessary, and that the university had failed to follow its own rules and ask the Institutional Review Board (IRB) to review the move as a human-subjects experiment.
The letter was delivered to the provost, who offered “an impromptu listening session” in which he alienated students by saying that if they trusted the university to “give” them a degree, they should trust it to surveil them. The students bristled at this characterization, noting that students deliver research (and grant money) to “make it tick.”
[Image ID: Sensors arrayed around a kitchen table at ISEC]
The students, believing the provost was not taking them seriously, unilaterally removed all the sensors, and stuck them to their kitchen table, annotating and decorating them with Sharpie. This prompted a second, scheduled “listening session” with the provost, but this session, while open to all students, was only announced to their professors (“Beware of the leopard”).
The students got wind of this, printed up fliers and made sure everyone knew about it. The meeting was packed. The provost explained to students that he didn’t need IRB approval for his sensors because they weren’t “monitoring people.” A student countered, what was being monitored, “if not people?” The provost replied that he was monitoring “heat sources.”
https://github.com/maxvonhippel/isec-sensors-scandal/blob/main/Oct_6_2022_Luzzi_town_hall.pdf
Remember, these are grad students. They asked the obvious question: which heat sources are under desks, if not humans (von Hippel: “rats or kangaroos?”). The provost fumbled for a while (“a service animal or something”) before admitting, “I guess, yeah, it’s a human.”
Having yielded the point, the provost pivoted, insisting that there was no privacy interest in the data, because “no individual data goes back to the server.” But these aren’t just grad students — they’re grad students who specialize in digital privacy. Few people on earth are better equipped to understand re-identification and de-aggregation attacks.
[Image ID: A window with a phrase written in marker, ‘We are not doing science here’ -Luzzi.]
A student told the provost, “This doesn’t matter. You are monitoring us, and collecting data for science.” The provost shot back, “we are not doing science here.” This ill-considered remark turned into an on-campus meme. I’m sure it was just blurted in the heat of the moment, but wow, was that the wrong thing to tell a bunch of angry scientists.
From the transcript, it’s clear that this is where the provost lost the crowd. He accused the students of “feeling emotion” and explaining that the data would be used for “different kinds of research. We want to see how students move around the lab.”
Now, as it happens, ISEC has an IoT lab where they take these kinds of measurements. When they do those experiments, students are required to go through IRB, get informed consent, all the stuff that the provost had bypassed. When this is pointed out, the provost says that they had been given an IRB waiver by the university’s Human Research Protection Program (HRPP).
Now a prof gets in on the action, asking, pointedly: “Is the only reason it doesn’t fall under IRB is that the data will not be published?” A student followed up by asking how the university could justify blowing $50,000 on surveillance gear when that money would have paid for a whole grad student stipend with money left over.
The provost’s answers veer into the surreal here. He points out that if he had to hire someone to monitor the students’ use of their desks, it would cost more than $50k, implying that the bill for the sensors represents a cost-savings. A student replies with the obvious rejoinder — just don’t monitor desk usage, then.
Finally, the provost started to hint at the underlying rationale for the sensors, discussing the cost of the facility to the university and dangling the possibility of improving utilization of “research assets.” A student replies, “If you want to understand how research is done, don’t piss off everyone in this building.”
Now that they have at least a vague explanation for what research question the provost is trying to answer, the students tear into his study design, explaining why he won’t learn what he’s hoping to learn. It’s really quite a good experimental design critique — these are good students! Within a few volleys, they’re pointing out how these sensors could be used to stalk researchers and put them in physical danger.
The provost turns the session over to an outside expert via a buggy Zoom connection that didn’t work. Finally, a student asks whether it’s possible that this meeting could lead to them having a desk without a sensor under it. The provost points out that their desk currently doesn’t have a sensor (remember, the students ripped them out). The student says, “I assume you’ll put one back.”
[Image ID: A ‘public art piece’ in the ISEC lobby — a table covered in sensors spelling out ‘NO!,’ surrounded by Sharpie annotations decrying the program.]
They run out of time and the meeting breaks up. Following this, the students arrange the sensors into a “public art piece” in the lobby — a table covered in sensors spelling out “NO!,” surrounded by Sharpie annotations decrying the program.
Meanwhile, students are still furious. It’s not just that the sensors are invasive, nor that they are scientifically incoherent, nor that they cost more than a year’s salary — they also emit lots of RF noise that interferes with the students’ own research. The discussion spills onto Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/NEU/comments/xx7d7p/northeastern_graduate_students_privacy_is_being/
Yesterday, the provost capitulated, circulating a memo saying they would pull “all the desk occupancy sensors from the building,” due to “concerns voiced by a population of graduate students.”
https://twitter.com/maxvonhippel/status/1578101964960776192
The shitty technology adoption curve is relentless, but you can’t skip a step! Jumping straight to grad students (in a privacy lab) without first normalizing them by sticking them on the desks of poor kids in underfunded schools (perhaps after first laying off a computer science teacher to free up the budget!) was a huge tactical error.
A more tactically sound version of this is currently unfolding at CMU Computer Science, where grad students have found their offices bugged with sensors that detect movement and collect sound:
https://twitter.com/davidthewid/status/1387909329710366721
The CMU administration has wisely blamed the presence of these devices on the need to discipline low-waged cleaning staff by checking whether they’re really vacuuming the offices.
https://twitter.com/davidthewid/status/1387426812972646403
While it’s easier to put cleaners under digital surveillance than computer scientists, trying to do both at once is definitely a boss-level challenge. You might run into a scholar like David Gray Widder, who, observing that “this seems like algorithmic management of lowly paid employees to me,” unplugged the sensor in his office.
https://twitter.com/davidthewid/status/1387909329710366721
This is the kind of full-stack Luddism this present moment needs. These researchers aren’t opposed to sensors — they’re challenging the social relations of sensors, who gets sensed and who does the sensing.
https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/
[Image ID: A flier inviting ISEC grad students to attend an unadvertised 'listening session' with the vice-provost. It is surmounted with a sensor that has been removed from beneath a desk and annotated in Sharpie to read: 'If found by David Luzzi suck it.']
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White-Collar Recession: It's Hard to Find a High-Salary Job
Over the past year or so, pretty much everyone who's looked for a job has told me the same thing: The job market is brutal right now. They've applied to dozens if not hundreds of openings, only to get one or two callbacks. No one's hiring, they tell me. I've never seen it this bad.
Listening to them, you'd think we were in the middle of a recession. But the confusing thing is we're nowhere close to one. Unemployment is near a five-decade low. The economy is adding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month. Wages are growing faster than inflation. By all the standard measures, the job market is doing just fine. So why am I hearing such a different story from people on the ground?
The dissonance finally started to make sense to me when Vanguard, the investment-management company, released its latest report on hiring. By looking at the enrollment and contribution rates of its 401(k) retirement plans, Vanguard is able to calculate a national hiring rate broken down by income level. And what the numbers show is a two-tier job market — one divided between a blue-collar boom and a white-collar recession.
Among Vanguard's lowest earners — those who make less than $55,000 — the hiring rate has held up well. At 1.5%, it's still above pre-pandemic levels. But among those who make more than $96,000? It's pretty depressing. Hiring has slowed to a dismal 0.5%, less than half the peak it reached in mid-2022. Excluding the dip in the early months of the pandemic, that's the worst it's been since 2014. If you make a six-figure salary, it really is a bad time to be looking for a job.
The question here is why. Why are companies hiring so few white-collar workers right now? Several possible explanations come to mind. It might be that fewer people in corporate jobs are quitting right now, which would mean companies have fewer openings they need to fill. It might be that the industries that are struggling the most — tech and finance — are the ones that employ a lot of high-earning professionals. Or it might be that CEOs are making good on their threats to cut back on what they see as corporate bloat — what Mark Zuckerberg has called "managers managing managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work."
But there could be a bigger, more worrisome explanation for the downturn in white-collar hiring. Maybe companies are anticipating tough times ahead and trimming their budgets accordingly. "If you need to pull back on costs," says Fiona Greig, the global head of investor research and policy at Vanguard, "pulling back on expensive workers will reduce costs to a greater extent than pulling back on your lower-income workers." Translation: The more you earn when budgets are tight, the less an employer wants to hire you.
Now, you could argue that a slowdown in white-collar hiring doesn't really matter in the current economy, even for white-collar workers. Sure, Vanguard's data show that things are tough for professionals who are looking for a job. But there aren't that many people who actually need a new job right now: The unemployment rate for people with a college degree is 2.1%, and the national layoff rate is below what it was pre-pandemic. When the vast majority of professionals already have a job — and are able to keep their jobs — maybe it's OK that companies aren't hiring.
But that argument doesn't take into account one important factor: What if the job you have is one you hate? I have several friends who are unhappy in their current jobs, but they can't quit because no one is hiring. Some observers have called this combination of lower hiring and less quitting "the Big Stay," suggesting a kind of equilibrium after the chaos of the Great Resignation. But my colleague Emily Stewart has a better name for it: the "trapped in place" economy. I think professionals feel this trapped-in-placeness particularly acutely. After all, it wasn't that long ago that they were enjoying a "take this job and shove it" swagger, which was fun to watch. During the Great Resignation, they knew it'd be easy to find a new job, which meant it'd be easy to walk away from their current one. Even if they weren't planning to leave, the job market gave them a sense of freedom — the feeling that they no longer had to put up with a bad boss, or a brutal workload, or an arbitrary return-to-office mandate.
This, I think, is what explains what people are calling the "vibecession": the weird state of feeling like we're in a recession even though all the standard metrics show we're not. What we're experiencing is actually a slowdown in white-collar hiring — and white-collar professionals (me and my angsty friends) are the people who shape the public discourse about the economy. "People feel that things are moving in the wrong direction," says Guy Berger, the director of economic research at the Burning Glass Institute, which analyzes the labor market.
And for the most elite professionals, things could get worse before they get better. Berger tells me he doesn't expect a full-on recession anytime soon. But he's keeping an eye on the unemployment rate for people with advanced degrees. Pretty much everyone else is doing OK, job-wise — but there's been a slight uptick for all the smarty-pants with master's degrees and doctorates. They aren't exactly struggling right now. "We're still talking about the people that have the highest pay in the job market and the lowest unemployment rate," Berger says. But for them, hiring is headed in the wrong direction. And as AI tools increasingly encroach on professionals' tasks — writing, coding, coordination, analysis — we'll likely see a lot more weakness at the higher end of the income scale than at the lower end.
This isn't the story we're used to hearing about employment. For decades the economy has been leaving workers with lower incomes and less education behind while professionals have reaped all the gains. But now those roles are reversed, and it's the high earners who are taking the hit. No wonder everyone is confused about how the economy is doing. "We're having some trouble collectively digesting that," Berger says. And the longer the white-collar hiring lull continues, he warns, the more the resentment will build.
"Even if there's no big surge in layoffs, people are just going to get grumpier and more dissatisfied," Berger says. "If it continues for three or four more years, it's going to cause a lot of discontent and low morale in corporate America."
SO?
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A sort of Fairy Tail - Chapter 10
Rating: T / PG-13, SFW.
Fandom: Mystic Messenger
Relationships: 707/MC (Jaena)/Saeran
Chapter 10 Wordcount: 3147
You can also read this on AO3! <- Also a good place to check tags.
Chapter 10: Coffeeshop AU
Paradigm Coffee was located just south of downtown, and it attracted an eclectic variety of clientele, from the usual hipster coffee crowd, to the tech sector folks who didn’t want to work from the office, to the local goth community, and beyond.
The owners, Tyler and Cassandra, had taken over for her grandfather, who was all too ready to hand off his business to a worthy (and youthful) successor.
The coffee was good - a nice medium blend that didn’t taste burnt like one of the popular chain’s did, and the specialty drinks weren’t bogged down in sugar the way the other popular chain’s were. If you asked Tyler, their real draw was the food that Cass cooked, down home favorites that kept everyone warm in the cold snowy season, and reminded them of home. If you asked Cass, their draw was the hot barista. Tyler drew in so many people, women, gay men, teens who wanted to be him. His model looks, golden blonde hair and deep blue eyes made anyone swoon for him. (He disagreed, of course, and wished people would stop hitting on him in front of his girlfriend.) For her part, Cass didn’t mind him getting the attention. She was perfectly happy to blend into the background, with her dark brown hair in its cyberpunk inverted-bob and way too much eyeliner lining her brown eyes.
They had lots of customers, but the regulars always caught their eye. Sean, who was always there on Wednesday and Friday working from the shop - he ordered a coffee or some kind of baked good at least once an hour, as if he was paying rent on the space. Oftentimes on Fridays he’d claim the largest table, and throughout the day a gaggle of college students would come and hang out, doing their own assignments or gaming. Oddly popular, that one. Then there was Liz with her long red hair and her boyfriend, the latter who never came inside but always waited outside while she was getting drinks, hood up and skateboard in hand, even in the dead of winter when skateboarding on the city sidewalks was a death wish. Cass always felt like all of them had such unique stories, and she wondered what would happen if she wrote stories around what happened in the shop.
The news in Seoul was full of stories about the cult up in the mountains, and the millions of won that they’d been contributing to Prime Minister Saejoong Choi’s campaign for President. The response from his campaign was swift and decisive, denying any knowledge of these donations having been from a cult, and pointed the media to his records, where they were all linked to the parties thrown by the RFA.
The RFA, of course, retaliated with details about all of the Prime Minister’s illicit dealings throughout the years, with a video wherein up-and-coming musical actor Zen presented ‘just a fraction’ of what the Prime Minister had done over the years, which included information about his twin sons, Saeyoung and Saeran, both of whom were missing, along with the RFA’s newest member Jaena, who’d gone missing during her vacation in Seoul earlier that summer. They also implicated the intelligence agency Saeyoung had been first targeted by at the request of his father, and then recruited by later, once the cult had started funneling money to the Prime Minister through it.
The coverage was so thorough that the news spread to other countries, appearing on every local news station, the scandal and terror of the cult’s existence and the way it preyed on the fatigue of white-collar workers and the general lack of proper discourse about mental health issues becoming trending topics across social media. The fact that an American woman had gone missing amidst the scandal did its part to make the situation an international one, when it might otherwise have stayed isolated.
A few weeks into the tense media circus that surrounded the situation, Saeyoung Choi reappeared, worse for wear, but alive. He explained how he’d been taken by his father in an attempt to clear his name, but between the RFA’s information campaign and the dissolution of the agency, there way no way to use him to that effect. The Prime Minister was booked by the authorities on several felony counts, as well as multiple more pending, and the leadership of the Agency likewise.
People were so shocked by Saeyoung’s reappearance that he had interviews on basically every channel, and even was a guest on Noprah’s show, where he basically told his life story, including fighting his way free of the agency that basically owned him, losing, finding, and losing his brother, and meeting but missing out on the woman of his dreams. At Noprah’s insistence, he made a plea into the camera at the end of the segment.
“Wherever my little brother and my perfect scarlet are out there, I hope they’re watching. I love you both so much, and I hope you’re taking care of each other. Stay put, I’ll find you soon. I promise.”
Cass tore her eyes away from the TV in the corner that was showing that episode of Noprah again. Daytime TV was the worst. That episode aired over a year ago, and they were still rerunning it.
“That episode is always on.” the girl at the counter said, and Tyler laughed.
“Yeah, that whole thing was an entire time. I’m so glad we live in a civilized country.” he said, and Cass just rolled her eyes.
“Plenty of bad things happen here.” Cass said with a smirk. “But that ginger really is a media darling, isn’t he?”
“Wasn’t that around the same time as you started running the shop here?” The counter girl asked, grinning.
“Yeah, actually. I think his Noprah segment was the first thing that was ever on that TV.”
“And it’ll be the last, too.” Cass said, rolling her eyes. “They’re never going to get sick of airing that nerd.”
“He’s cute though!” counter girl said, and then slapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh my god, don’t tell my boyfriend I said that, I’ll never live it down.”
“Haha, we won’t.” Tyler said, and Cass reached out to tousle his golden blonde locks.
“You need a haircut. Quick before winter hits and you just hide it under hats until it’s unbearable.”
“Baaaaabe, we’re at work!” Tyler pouted, and she laughed and kissed his cheek.
“Okay, okay, I’ll leave off until later.”
“Crazy lovebirds.” The girl at the counter said, standing. “Thanks for the coffee, see you next time!”
“Bye Liz!” They chorused unintentionally, and waved as the girl with long red hair sauntered out of the coffee shop, meeting up with a boy in a hoodie who’d been standing outside smoking while she got coffee.
When she was gone, Cass let out a breath she didn’t realize was trapped.
Tyler sighed. “Gods, she reminds me of…”
“…Jaena.” Cass said, nodding. “You really do need a haircut.”
“I do. And your roots need a touchup.”
“Do not.”
“Do too.”
Later, in their tiny apartment above the coffee shop, Cass sat scrolling through Tripter on her laptop, her brows creased in a slight frown. Tyler walked up behind her, and started massaging her shoulders. “Checking in on Zen and Yoosung again?” he asked, and she nodded.
“It’s easy to check in on the famous ones. I know the articles about Jumin’s abortive presidential bid and supposed illicit relationship with Jaehee are all trashy journalism, but at least Yoosung’s meTube channel shows me the face he wants me to see, and Zen’s tripter is still full of thirsty women as usual. He’s got a new role, looks like he’ll be starring in Phantom.”
“Oh, that’s lovely.” Tyler said, but she could tell his heart wasn’t in it. He turned away from her, and went into the kitchen, puttering about uselessly.
“Ty…”
He turned to look at her, and his cheeks were wet. Immediately, she stood and closed the distance between them.
“I don’t want to be Elfstar anymore.” He said, an old reference that not only made her chuckle but also broke her heart. She reached out and gently wiped the tears off his cheeks.
“I love you.” she said, as if it was the only thing that could help him feel better.
“I love you too.” he said, pulling her into a hug. “But I shouldn’t. We shouldn’t. I feel so guilty.”
“I love him too, still.” She said. “You’re twins. You’re so similar but so different. I’ve done lots of shady things in my life, but I don’t consider loving two men one of them.”
“Can you just… say my name… once?”
She chuckled, and moved away so she could look him in the eye. “Saeran, dear. You should take those contacts out so we can sleep.”
His cheeks pinked, and he leaned forward to press a soft kiss to her lips. “Okay, Jaena.”
Seasons passed, and summer turned to fall, with the bright colors on the trees flaring to life and fading to brown before falling and being replaced by the unbroken white of fresh snow.
Cass walked up to Tyler, who’d paused at the front door while unlocking it to open. It was a Wednesday, and after the fresh snow last night, it was unlikely they’d have a big crowd. Just in case, Cass made a batch of Mac & Cheese, their sign outside calling it out as the “Warm-up Special.”
“Hey Tyler, you okay?”
“Yeah, I just like looking at the snow. It’s so beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful.” Cass said, nudging him in the side.
“No you.” Tyler pouted, and turned to head back to the counter.
As predicted, it was slow. Cass didn’t mind, it gave her time to catch up on her reading. Or, in this case, to be irritated by the perpetual reruns of that same Noprah segment with Saeyoung in it. Fuck, I miss that idiot.
Distracted by her own thoughts and reminiscences, she wasn’t expecting the sudden influx of college students. She hopped up to assist Tyler who was quickly taking orders.
“I know you’re not that chain place, but you wouldn’t be willing to write “shitty hair” as my name on my cup, would you?” the student at the counter said, and Cass turned to look at them, exaggeratedly eyeing them up and down. “You look more like a ‘dunce face’ to me.”
Tyler looked at her like she’d grown an extra head. “What did you just…?!”
“OMG is that you, Bakugo? I never knew you were a goth barista!”
Tyler realized, then, that this was a reference to one of her shows, and tuned out, taking the rest of the orders while they continued to chatter on about characters and quirks and who knows what else. Eventually, drinks were delivered, and most of the group congregated at a set of tables unsurprisingly around where Sean was working. Weird, she thought It’s not Friday. Guess the snow motivated them.
Cass continued to chatter with the student, while Tyler went to take a break in back. That many people was still a lot for him, even after 18 months of experience. When the bell above the door jingled to signal more customers, Cass called “Be with you in a moment!” as she was busy pulling up photos from comic con a few years ago, to show off that Unbreakable Red Riot she’d seen.
“This is still the best cosplay I’ve ever encountered.” she said to the blonde, who took her phone and stared at it.
“Wow, that had to have been a ton of work.” They said, and handed her phone back.
“You know the best part?” she said, and they shook their head.
“That was my actual hair.” a voice next to them said, tone full of mischief.
Cass’s head snapped to the side so fast she thought she might have given herself whiplash, her mouth gaping open like a fish. Am I hallucinating?
Her call to the customers was also Tyler’s call to come back out front, and he emerged from the kitchen, giving Cass the customary kiss on the cheek that he’d done every day for more than a year, before realizing who was standing in front of him.
“Friend of yours?” he asked, one eyebrow quirked up, which helped Cass get a hold of herself.
“K-kindof?!” Cass squeaked, her fight or flight reflex leaving her frozen but leaning heavily towards flight.
“Wait, is this that cosplayer?” the student she’d been chatting with said, which got the attention of the rest of his group.
“Whoa, that’s Saeyoung Choi!” one of the girls said, and immediately the redhead standing in front of them was swept up into the hubbub of students, despite any attempt to escape them. Cass took one frightened look at Tyler, who waved her toward the kitchen door, an excuse to exit that she happily took.
Anything could have been happening in the front of the shop. Cass’ blood was pounding in her ears, and she collapsed into one of the break room chairs, and immediately put her head between her knees to try and forestall the panic attack and/or fainting spell that both seemed equally likely given the situation.
What could have been seconds or hours later, the back door from the alley swung open on its creaky hinges and her head snapped back up. No one came in that door, except if they just took the trash out. She left the hinges squeaky on purpose.
In front of her eyes stood none other than Vanderwood, with one eyebrow quirked up at her, in that way that spoke volumes only he could manage.
“How the fuck… D-dad?!” Her hands slapped over her mouth when she realized what she’d called him, but it was too late.
“I think Alfred would be more appropriate.”
That startled a laugh out of her. “I don’t have Bruce Wayne’s budget, I’m sorry, but your position has been eliminated, sir.”
“You can’t fire me, I quit.” He said gruffly, and turned as if to leave.
“N-no!” She said, suddenly, launching out of her chair so suddenly that it fell over backwards. She ran into him at speed, and wrapped her arms around his middle, managing nothing more than knocking him into the wall with the force of her motion. “You can’t go.” she choked out, having surprised even herself with the tears running down her cheeks.
“I won’t go anywhere. Let me turn around, treasure.”
She dropped her arms, and he turned around and pulled her into his arms, one hand rubbing her back while she sobbed.
“I found you, just like I promised.”
“About fucking time.” she said, between sobs.
They just stood there for a few minutes, until her breathing calmed, and he let her go.
She opened her mouth to ask something, but was interrupted by a call from the front.
“Cass! I need you, babe!”
“Fuck.” she said, and then louder “Be out in a sec, washing my hands!”
A quick dash to the mirror above the sink by the door to the front - installed for this exact purpose, though she hadn’t needed it for Vanderwood and Seven’s presence ruining her makeup as much as their absence - allowed for her to quick fix her makeup before washing her hands and reappearing as a completely functional coffeeshop owner… to a flood of people who’d shown up when their friends told them Saeyoung was here.
“Whoa.” She said, and Tyler shot her a glance that told him he was already beyond overwhelmed, but even so was more worried about her than about himself. “I’m fine.” She said, immediately getting to work putting together complicated coffee drinks.
“If you need an extra set of hands, I’m happy to help.” Vanderwood’s voice said from just behind the door to the kitchen. “He tends to draw crowds wherever he goes these days.”
Tyler whipped around, already holding a spare apron as Vanderwood stepped through the door.
“Put this on. Do what Cass tells you.”
Cass would have been more surprised by Tyler’s tone, except for the fact that he’d known Vanderwood a sum total of 12 hours, 6 of which he’d been asleep, and all of which were 18 months ago.
As he finished tying his apron, Cass looked Vanderwood up and down. “You know how to run an espresso machine?”
“I’ve been making coffee longer than you’ve been alive.” That one-eyebrow look again.
“Good. Recipes for the fancy drinks are on the counter.” She said, and turned to make the complicated smoothie concoctions instead, choosing to trust her chosen father-figure with the coffee that was his lifeblood while Tyler manned the counter and the bakery case.
Finally, they hit a lull, and Cass turned to see Seven looking a little worse for wear. At least to a practiced eye. He was still smiling and being his goofy 707-self, but she could see the strain of it.
“I’m gonna—“ she started.
“Go, he needs it.” Tyler interrupted, and she nodded, dishing up a bowl of mac & cheese and grabbing a PhD Pepper out of the cooler before slipping out from behind the counter and over to the area where Seven seemed to be holding court. He looked up and saw her, and turned to address the group.
“Hey, my dinner’s here. Can we pick this up in a bit?”
For some reason, they all nodded like he was the one doing them a favor by eating, and shuffled off to other tables and conversations.
“Mac & Cheese.” She said, handing him the plate. “And your lifeblood, good sir.”
He didn’t say anything right away, simply took a bite of the food she’d brought, and washed it down with a sip of soda.
“It really is better with the vegetables in it.” He said, then. “Damn vegetables.” He looked at the dish as though it personally betrayed him.
“It meets your standards then I hope, Mister Celebrity.”
“More than. God, Scarlet. You look so different. If I hadn’t heard you talking about my cosplay, I might have missed you entirely.”
“I never would have missed you, my Red Riot.” she said, quietly, trying to keep herself from crying. “Not in a million years.”
“Was 18 months too long to wait?” he said suddenly, sharply, his gaze not on her but on the counter, where Tyler had his back to them and was walking Vanderwood through something. “Who’s the handsy blonde, and where the hell is my brother?”
Cass froze at his initial question and then slapped a hand over her mouth to cover her laugh at his follow-up questions.
“Seven, I… your brother is behind the counter. He’s blonde. He’s your fucking twin, how did you not recognize him?! You Have. The Same. Face.”
Seven blinked, then shook his head. “Seven.exe has stopped working. Abort, Retry, Fail?”
Author's Note: Saeran's commentary about not wanting to be Elfstar anymore is an old school (as old as 1984...) reference to anti-D&D religious propaganda, specifically a chick tract called "Dark Dungeons". I don't agree with any of the messages from that hate group, but it's one hell of a meme, and seems like exactly the kind of shit the twins would know about and mock-reference. Here's an article from The Escapist about the tract, that has a good breakdown of what it's about without furthering the hate.
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Alphabet Workers Union exemplifies the vibrancy and power of pre-majority union organizing
An official union might be years away, but worker organizing can lay the institutional and — even more critically — cultural foundations.
The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), colloquially known as “the Google union,” just celebrated its three-year birthday and continues to demonstrate the opportunity of pre-majority worker organizing at megacorporations. You can read more about AWU in the new case study we just added to our pre-majority unionism report.
AWU emerged after several years of worker organizing among white- and blue-collar workers at Google, including petitions and a historic walkout, as well as some recognized unions, and alongside a burgeoning worker movement across the tech industry, typified by industry-wide Tech Workers Coalition. This lively history that preceded the only wall-to-wall union at a tech megacorporation demonstrates the great potential of the kind of organizing that EWOC does. An official union might be years away, but worker organizing can lay the institutional and — even more critically — cultural foundations. It’s hard to imagine AWU without the years of worker organizing that came before.
AWU is a wall-to-wall pre-majority union, meaning that our membership includes any worker at Alphabet (Google’s parent company), regardless of job title or employer. Indeed, many of our members are employed by third-party contracting agencies. On AWU’s structure, Chris Schmidt, former AWU secretary, says: “You need to have a formal structure that people can slot into, one to two to three to ten people at a time, with the idea of growing and connecting … our structure allows for that.”
AWU’s strategies and tactics have been diverse.
A town hall among data center workers that won a reinstitution of COVID hazard pay
A petition that won Raters millions of dollars per year in raises
A dramatic joint employment “wedding” demonstrating Google’s exploitative joint employment arrangement;
A majority strike threat that won Google Maps workers a work-from-home extension
Not to mention three majority recognition victories, unfair labor practice charges, and other legal tactics
As one might imagine, organizing 150,000 workers at a surveillance megacorporation has its challenges. Worker leaders with whom I spoke cited focus as a key challenge in the effort, as well as maintaining coherence within such a massive organizing effort. You can see some of AWU’s “union day” events, which function to maintain coherence and highlight efforts and victories within our union, on our YouTube channel.
Alphabet is of course fighting back. Most recently, Google cut an enormous swath of its search quality workforce after they had started to organize.
Want a more in-depth discussion of AWU’s history, structure, and strategy? Check out the case study! Want to know more about pre-majority union organizing in general? Have a look around the rest of the pre-majority unionism report!
Want to talk with a workplace organizer? Get in touch.
Ike McCreery is an organizer, researcher, and engineer. They chaired the organizing and steering committees of the Alphabet Workers Union and were a founding member of Tech Workers Coalition Seattle. They worked as a senior site reliability engineer at Google.
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My Covid-19 news coverage conspiracy: an attempt to instill culturally-conservative, collectivist, and communist values
I'm not denying the existence of Covid-19 or anything like that. But I think there have been some very... careful considerations in how the healthcare, pharmaceutical, tech, and media industries have covered this rapidly-evolving viral infection.
First, there is no such thing as the "Covid-19 virus" in technical literature. Covid-19 is technically the CoronaVirus DISEASE 2019. Referring to the virus as the covid virus is like referring to a hammer as a "blunt force trauma device". The virus is in fact the Sars-COV-2, a subspecies of the SARS virus! It's SARS, through and through! A virus that has already been named and added to spell-checkers. COVID had to be added later on, forcing mass software updates, updates to style guides, etc., and forcing everyone to learn this new term at a time when the English language was already rapidly evolving.
Second, the language of the "essential worker" is something I can't help but feel could qualify as a potential attempt to communize the US and other developed nations. To tell the masses to initially only leave home if absolutely necessary, while forcing the world's foodservice, retail, and "blue collar" professions to keep leaving the house, breeding resentment among the lower classes and medical professions, while also making most non-medical white collar professions seem frivolous.
(I can also see a trend where tech is no longer seen as a liberal-minded profession - I sometimes wonder if it will intentionally attract the conservative-minded in the future, who will call for it to be regulated like cars, raise prices, and scare progressive people away from using it while turning a once-rebellious pastime and career into something for the rule-obsessed puritans and overly-empathetic prudes who will make sure people only ever use these devices for serious business. I think the use of quiet ringtones and a very soothing default alarm tone in IOS 17 was an intentional choice, as is the fact that the new OS will show key files and photos on your lock screen sidebar. Gotta scare the kids away from downloading porn and sensitize them to the point where Snails House to them sounds like GWAR to elders!)
Third, the pandemic has incentivized young adult college students to go back home and therefore spend more time among their elders, exposing them to more conservative cultural ideas, especially when their grandparents might now be in the picture. No one in your meatspace might use the pronouns you fought for. No one will hold back when telling you that you'll magically outgrow your gayness when you turn 25. You'll be given the side eye for not praying, and feel guilty if those prayers are fake, if you're an atheist or pagan. You'll be hounded for going out late or not clenching your legs together if you sit if you're a woman. You'll be around older dialectical standards, which almost feel like an older "operating system" incompatible with newer ideologies - even something as innocent and common as electronic music might be harder to justify - the idea that "quiet" and "soft" are separate concepts, or that music doesn't necessarily have to be performed, are foreign to older dictionaries. Try justifying social constructivism to people who believe that God himself imbibed words with their meanings, and folk etymologies based on bad Biblical translation practices. And with high-fives being a high risk, expect to also hear conversations about how you should never take the risk of having sex outside marriage.
Fourth, the standards used by different countries are inconsistent. The US used 6 feet, and some other countries used 2 meters - 6 feet and some change. But many other countries used 1 or 1.5 meters, roughly 3 1/2 and 5 feet respectively. The world simply wasn't built for this distancing. And combining it with masks basically made things difficult for the hard of hearing, or for those with sensory issues who find it hard to decipher voices over even quiet machinery. Many people rely on lip reading. And the sparser requirements made taking buses and metros a pain, potentially breeding resentment in those who can't afford cars, don't have licenses for various disabilities, or have a DUI.
Fifth, the masks. There was so little standardization in mask design, and for a while, you were shamed for using an N95 or KN95 if you weren't immunocompromised or were a medic. They couldn't just ramp up production or convert some factories - even in China, where an electronics factory that produces synthesizers one week could make self-refilling dog bowls the next. The mainstream masks, no matter how tight I'd bend the metal, would always fog up my glasses, discouraging me from wearing them to class.
Sixth, ZOOM. Fucking ZOOM. In theory, much of it is mean to simulate eye contact, which isn't even a universal for good communication. Autistic people often find it HARDER to listen when eye contact is forced. BECAUSE THEIR TRAIN OF THOUGHT IS EXPENDED ON EYE CONTACT! That plus the fact that it isn't even natural eye contact - not only is everyone looking below the camera, but everyone is looking at everyone! People are uncomfortable in their own homes, and you'll often have to screen-share, and often SHOW THE CLASS OR BUSINESS MEETING YOUR FUCKING DOWNLOADS FOLDER! I hope you don't have any obscure fetishes that are legal but could make you subject to judgement! ZOOM and its requirements mean people are also designing computers around these kinds of video calls - at the expense of things like animation rendering time, audio performance, etc., meaning people with these hobbies have to shell out more. My Mom's $1000 PC Laptop could barely handle Ableton Live when she wanted some audio software on it! I wouldn't dare try Maya on it even if she begged me to install it. But it runs Zoom no problem.
Seventh - "indefinitely". This word seemed to have regained its original meaning of "until possible further notice overnight. Everywhere was closed indefinitely - a term that semantically now means "infinitely" or "permanently". If Chili's closes indefinitely, to my eyes and ears and brain between them, that means THERE AIN'T GONNA BE NO MORE CHILI'S! News organizations generally avoid ambiguous language like this - so why use it? Well, in addition to introducing those new terms, there might have been an attempt to get people used to more academic language. This might sound like a contradiction of my first point, but it actually amplifies it. SARS-COV-2 is distinct from SARS-COV-1, despite both being the same species! It fits into the same philosophy that educated people ought to say "man" or "woman" instead of "person" because even a deductive analysis of a dictionary can justify this idea that anything a man or woman does will inevitably be colored by their gender. Similarly, while descriptive dictionaries like Webster's will put the "infinite" definition of "indefinite" first, the prescriptive ones like American Heritage or Oxford will put the definition of "vague" or "without a fixed or known end" first - and you're expected as an educated person to just know that.
Eighth, the entire situation has forced people to spend more time around doctors' offices. Half of everyone I know is on some sort of psych med now. People are being pushed on Rybelsis or Ozempic for weight loss and paying for it with the size effects. People are giving up hobbies and interest they love because a therapist told them that using tech for entertainment was an unhealthy addiction, or that women being aggressive was destructive to your very synapses - and just noping out of friendships left and right. It's not respectable to be a gamer anymore. Tech is for ZOOM.
You also have to remember that a certain country that makes the vast majority of game systems once banned most game systems from domestic sale.
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AI, Jobs, and Reversing Expectations
We thought it was going to be:
Blue collar first
White collar next
Creative jobs, probably never.
How AI turned out was the opposite of what was predicted.
Creative jobs are facing a disruption. [show statistics]
Here is where I make a distinction between lowercase ‘creative’ and uppercase ‘Creative’. Lowercase ‘creative’ is just the production of nice-looking images, text, videos, and content. It turns out the Hallucination is a feature and not a bug.
Uppercase ‘Creative’ is connecting dots that have never been connected, remixing content that have never been mixed - this is what AI cannot yet replace.
What about white collar?
‘Email jobs’ done by ‘surplus elites’ representing routine organizational tasks are facing disruption as evidenced by the hiring slowdown across large companies.
Outsourced jobs like customer service are also in danger.
The overall economy has been doing well, but the white collar recession is underway.
Blue collar may be the hardest to disrupt. We are now facing labor shortage for plumbers, delivery personnel, truck drivers, caregivers, waitresses, construction workers.
Robotics has been a pipe dream over the last 80 years, yet it’s always somehow ten years away. There’s not enough clean movement or motion data that can
This backs up the evidence that ‘Hard things look easy’ and ‘easy things look hard’. Opposite to human intuition, text is actually easiest, images are okay, but picking up objects, climbing up stairs, and avoiding obstacles are hard problems.
OpenAI started with robotics, but shifted to text when it hit the technological constraints, but Altman did say he will shift back when the tech becomes more ready.
For now, the existential questions surrounding AI are thornier than ever. AI gets to do the fun creative jobs, and humans are left with hard labor. That certainly wasn’t the future that the AI optimists were expecting but here we are, and we have to face the music.
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You in debt, they aren’t going to beat ya, “KEVIN, I’VE NEVER HEARD THIS, PEOPLE ARE STUCK ON YOUR HATTIPS!” Now, it’s cuck Robert Greene and I’m king. Times up. Fuck THAT GUY! Report to your master, ME. See culture, see tech, to see report. I didn’t report to a master, so, you aren’t treating me like a slave with wenches. White men are being deprived from sex, you deny the knight in the trough? See my evil eye, and John Booth has a seat for ya. Hell yea.
John Booth has a seat for ya! You are in debt, you have a husband, you need money, JOHN BOOTH HAS A SEAT FOR YA. JOHHHHNNN BOOTH. You can’t stay very long, but you can return, your husband needs his dinner. He is a hard working blue collar worker. THE ACTOR AND FAIR PENITENTS! Some one is going to have to go to sleep and not wake up dude. Can you read? Yea..
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7 Challenges White Collar Workers Face
Working in companies is not as easy as some people perceive it to be. Workers, whether white or blue-collar, face different problems and challenges that can make them question what they do and doubt their knowledge and skills. Some pressures can affect their physical and mental health, so there is no surprise if you see them undergoing hardship. To understand white collar contract & labour hire better, here are some of the challenges white-collar workers face:
Technological Overload
Technology has been helpful to many people, especially students and workers. But even if there are many benefits to using them, some might feel overloaded and pressured into using them. The developments can be difficult to understand, especially if you are not into tech, so constant influx and pressure can be overwhelming. If this ever happens to you, do not be afraid to be open about it. There are people in your office who are willing to assist until you get used to the technology you are using.
Work-Life Balance
Sadly, having a work-life balance can be challenging to some. They do not have this because the demands of their work are too much. Sacrificing the time they should have for their families and friends can affect connection and relationships, so do not let it happen to you. If you think you will have this kind of issue with your company, be patient enough to find someone who will not let you get through this. If you do not let yourself have time for other things outside your office, burnout and stress are what you will experience.
Isolation
Working long hours can make you feel isolated because you do not have time for your family and friends. Loneliness is not good, so ensure you have time for other things aside from work. There is no harm in doing what you love because you deserve it after spending a long day at work. But aside from this, it is better to have someone with you while you are working. A simple chat will not affect your work, especially if you understand your tasks and limitations.
Job Insecurity
Even if many people work in big corporations, some cannot shake off the feeling of getting concerned about the bad things that could happen. The fear of layoffs and job instability can influence your mental health, so doing something about them is necessary. If you have questions or concerns, do not be afraid to have them laid off to the higher-ups to get answers and prevent yourself from thinking much. Instead of having your energy spent on work and other necessary things, you will worry about losing your job without any plans or backups.
High Expectations
Since you are a white-collar worker, many people expect that you are good at everything. However, this is not always the case. Though there are people who easily adapt to the environment and the job, not everyone can do it. They need time to learn everything and ensure they are doing the job correctly and efficiently. High-performance expectations can lead to stress and anxiety, so be truthful about yourself during the job interview or even before you sign up to get the job.
Competitive Environment
Many people are competitive when they are at the office, so do not be surprised if you ever encounter one. They are climbing the corporate ladder for better opportunities and higher salaries. Though it can be a healthy competition to some, the fierce ones can create a hostile atmosphere and environment for their fellow employees, hindering many partnerships and collaborations that could have been healthy.
Office Politics
Office politics is a problem for many white-collar workers because it affects many people inside and outside the office. Instead of having a healthy environment for everyone, the greedy ones can step on people who are just doing their jobs and giving their best at work. Office politics can also affect the career progression of many.
Even if many people want to get white-collar jobs, it can be challenging because of the ones mentioned. Stability and opportunities can be affected negatively if these issues are not faced and talked about early on. White collar workers deserve peace of mind and happiness in life, so recognising these challenges and seeking solutions can improve their career and overall well-being.
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boom boom boom
the AI boom "replacing" artists and writers and massive tech layoffs feel interconnected
back in the late 2010s, I used to envy those who worked in the tech industry because they got six figs, catered food, foosball tables, and are able to afford houses, but now...
it just feels like the emperor has no clothes because each tech employee is probably only working on one project regarding one function of one application, at least at the larger established tech companies where you're not expected to rock the boat. tech slander, i know
there's so much technochauvinism, the belief that technology is superior to humankind and will save us all - when it's clear that technology is nothing but a mirror that exacerbates existing human emotions like rage and existing human problems like wealth inequality. no shit, lol tech was built by humans to make human life easier??
people who worked in tech and white-collar jobs seemed to give me the hardest time when I wanted to be a nurse, with comments like "you really want to clean up people's poop?" and "why not be a doctor" and it opened my eyes to the ways that these people actually regard essential workers, physical laborers, and blue-collar workers. not well haha. and now, having learned more about work sectors like childcare, education, customer service, carpentry, public transit, and construction, I've come to the conclusion that these are the people who keep society running and aren't compensated for the sheer physical labor they do and the amount of people they benefit. and that's fucking wild to me. hats off to the bartender who poured me a shot on the house when i came in at like 9pm on a saturday telling her about how a patient damn near lunged at me earlier at work bc he wasn't being seen by a provider fast enough. game recognize game
like, these middle to upper-class wannabe elite family friends are really showing their asses. if they're willing to disrespect essential workers so much that they didn't want me to become one, how much mistreatment of people unlike themselves are they willing to tolerate without batting an eye?
there are obviously a lot of problems with healthcare and a lot of toxicity in nursing, but i've proud to be a nurse. I've met some cool nurses and I'm proud of the strong labor union history in the nursing profession. being a nurse has definitely given me a lot more wisdom, grace, and bystander intervention knowledge, even though i am so tired lol
also, bringing the topic back to tech - there are many nurses who are woefully unskilled with technology and I think the outdated nursing educational curriculum built off of paper charting is to blame, and maybe also the focus on physical skills in the training of new nurses. but, there is a lot more promise in health tech on the horizon and i think more nurses should be tech literate to address certain challenges. like, we can do remote BP monitoring throughout the day now and analyze trends, and psych telemedicine visits that reduce barriers to mental health care access. again, bringing the convo back to technology being created by humans, it should be used to help humans live better lives if possible!
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Generation AI- Part 1
Generation AI
The Greatest Generation had the Great Depression and World War 2. The Baby Boomers had Woodstock. Generation X had the Internet. The Millennials had social media and smartphones. Every generation has its defining moment. For those born within the last few years, it will undoubtedly be the arrival of artificial intelligence. So, maybe it should be dubbed Generation AI?
In the same way that most millennials do not know a world without the Internet, Gen AI will never know a world without artificial intelligence. Pundits are saying that its arrival is as significant as the invention of the wheel, the discovery of fire, and the creation of atomic energy.
Nevertheless, Geoffrey Hinton, widely regarded as the godfather of artificial intelligence (AI) quit his job at Google, warning about the growing dangers of the burgeoning technology. In an interview with the BBC Hinton said that AI chatbots were "quite scary" and that “Right now, they're not more intelligent than us, as far as I can tell. But I think they soon may be."
While I agree that AI could eventually pose an existential threat to humanity, for now, it requires prompts to function. Yes, at some point, if AI becomes autonomous it could wipe us out, but right now, as we’ll discuss below, it is still incredibly reliant on humans. So, for the time being, I think there is less to fear from an AI gone rogue, and more to fear from the humans who are directing it.
Let me begin by saying, I am not a Luddite. I love technology. I built my first website back in 1997 and way back then the media said that the Internet would be a great equalizer that would create a level playing field for small companies to compete with large corporations. They said it would free us from the shackles of our desks and allow us to work less.
While some of these things have come to fruition, many have gone in just the opposite direction. Today digital nomads roam the world while working from exotic beaches in Thailand or Bali, so yes it has unshackled us from our desks. But we are working more hours than ever. Thanks to email and text messaging our bosses can get us any time of day or night even on the weekends.
The Internet has made it easier for entrepreneurs in niche markets to start businesses, but the rise of tech giants has meant that small and medium-sized companies have been crushed or bought out creating consolidation across many industries.
Far from being the great equalizer the majority of the spoils have gone to a handful of companies, in particular, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple which have to some degree hollowed out the middle class through AI automation and have even wiped out a few large corporations along the way(Toys R Us, Bed Bath and Beyond, Macy’s Nordstrom, to name a few).
When it was just blue-collar factory workers, we weren’t so alarmed but with the release of Chat GPT even white-collar workers with MBAs and PhDs are starting to get nervous.
The Internet has destroyed the small local newspaper that depended largely on classifieds for ad revenue. Since 2005 2,200 have closed. Much of the money that used to go toward ads in newspapers and magazines, and commercials on television has gone to search and social media giants Google and Facebook.
More recently, digital news media companies have broken down, including Vice, and Buzzfeed News, and Vox recently laid off 7% of its staff. The Internet is even threatening to topple large news organizations like the New York Times, NPR, CNN, and Gannet.
So, the question is what will generative AI mean for the beleaguered journalism industry? In 2020 Microsoft replaced the reporters that maintained its MSN web page with AI. CNET has used it for tech reporting, although it was plagued with errors, and Buzz Feed used it for its travel section.
But it’s not just print journalism that is under threat. AI can even replace news anchors and reporters with digital doppelgangers that are hard to distinguish from humans, in the near future it will be all but impossible.
Google announced in May 2023 that they were making plans to further undercut the news organizations with the release of Bard, their new AI-assisted search engine which will summarize the top search results, alleviating the reader of the need to go to the site. This will mean fewer eyeballs for organizations like the New York Times and less ad revenue.
For decades the New York Times has been seen as the pinnacle of serious journalism. If we lose these types of news organizations it will mean a huge loss for democratic societies, which depend on them to act as a watchdog for corporate and government malfeasance.
What will happen to investigative journalism if we put it in the hands of an AI? Can we trust it to hunt down leads and break historic news like the Water Gate Scandal, the Pentagon Papers, and Exxon lying about climate change?
Has Social Media Made Us Better Off Today?
AI is supposed to democratize knowledge and information, but how can it if so, few people control it? Just five (Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon) tech companies control most of the artificial intelligence market in the United States and the data that it needs to run. This concentrates, power, money, and influence in fewer hands.
Ask yourself if you feel like our society is better off than it was 10 to 15 years ago. By some metrics we are. Our computers and devices have gotten faster and cheaper, and so have telecommunications, but it has come at a cost.
In 2019 the U.S. had the highest suicide rate it’s had since World War II, increasing by 17% since 2000, even while it dropped by 36% in the rest of the world. In 2021 the U.S. had over 100,000 drug overdose deaths, the highest ever recorded ever and up 28.5% from just the year before, according to the CDC.
We are seeing higher levels of anxiety and depression; young adults are having less sex than 20 years ago; mass shootings and homelessness have risen sharply in the past few years; and the Surgeon General just declared a loneliness epidemic in America.
All these issues can at least partially be attributed to the rise of social media, the Internet, and artificial intelligence. These technologies were supposed to bring us together, and while it is easier to stay in touch with friends that you have not seen in decades, we are also more divided than ever. The spread of misinformation, cyberbullying, job loss, and the concentration of wealth has also led to an angrier country.
Although wealth inequality has fallen slightly since 2000, today a mere 1% of people control 46% of the wealth while the 70% at the bottom control a scant 2.7%. Things will get worse if we do not regulate AI and truly democratize it. Yes, AI can be an incredible source of good and could potentially end poverty, improve healthcare and education, and help end the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.
But just like social media, it can lead to a greater spread of misinformation, only this time it will be much more difficult to distinguish the difference between lies and reality since using AI perpetrators can manipulate us with deep faked images, videos, and scientific evidence making it a source of tremendous potential evil.
The rise of AI could mean the end of democracy as it would be so easy to manipulate the news and elections. It will most likely lead to even greater concentrations of wealth as billions are bilked out of their savings in complex scams and the entire world becomes dependent on AI for basic needs such as healthcare, education, and housing.
Technologists are talking about the potential of AI replacing artists, journalists, filmmakers, actors (yes actors), scriptwriters, authors, teachers, doctors, lawyers, judges, and even parents. We are trying to be sold on the fact that AI runs on algorithms and because of that they are unbiased, but that is not even remotely true.
AI is only as good as the data it is trained on and in real-world usage, it is every bit as racist, sexist, elitist, and even misogynistic as humans can be, perhaps even more so since it’s only such a small part of the population that controls this technology.
So, imagine a world in which, every person in one of these jobs is a racist, sexist, elitist misogynist and you can get a picture of what we could be creating if we continue along the unregulated path that we are currently on.
Imagine if every movie you ever saw, book, or article you read; every time you stepped into a classroom; a courtroom; or a doctor’s office you knew that the person who you were interacting with had a bias against you. It would be like stepping back into a world of slavery, except this time most of the world would be the slaves and your masters would also know what you are thinking and feeling.
A young, attractive, influencer named Caryn, created an AI replica of herself to keep men from being lonely. You can chat with it for the sum of $1 per minute and it will even talk dirty to you if you are into that sort of thing.
Humans like computers are programmed. But instead of 1s and 0s we are programmed by our hormones, parents, teachers, friends, the media, the books we’ve read the movies and TV shows we’ve watched, the traumas we’ve experienced, and the kindnesses we have been shown. The result is that human beings are sometimes unpredictable and oftentimes irrational. What is considered normal behavior to one person is considered aberrant to another.
I’m an introvert by nature and know first-hand that humans can be a phenomenal pain in the ass and are often disappointing. But the difference is that we can disconnect from one person and move on to the next.
What if we become so dependent on AI companionship that we start losing touch with our human friends, or worse forget how to communicate with them? Do you think that is unrealistic? Again, young adults are having less sex, because online porn has become a replacement for human relationships for a large swathe of the population. How far is it a leap to go to an AI robotic companion that on some level seems to fulfill your every need because they are so good at manipulating you?
Yes, as humans we manipulate each other as well. But with one very big difference. An AI will be able to read your thoughts and know what you are feeling based on your blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing patterns before you even know it. We could eventually live in an age where we are so dependent on AIs to fulfill our every need that we have no choice but to pay big tech companies whatever they are asking for them and it will probably be a lot more than $1 per minute.
What happens when AI and the people that control it are responsible for every TV show and movie you ever saw, every book that you ever read, everything you were taught in school, and most friends you have had were made by an AI? How differently would you think, act and behave? Would you even have any thoughts of your own that were not indoctrinated into you?
AI Isn’t as Smart as We Think It Is (Yet)
In a TED Talk titled— Why AI Is Incredibly Smart and Shockingly Stupid, computer scientist Yejin Choi demonstrates how little common-sense Chat GPT 4 has when she asks it two questions that a six-year-old child could answer. The first is “If you have 5 pieces of clothes and they took 5 hours to dry in the sun how many hours would it take for 30 pieces to dry?” The answer Chat GPT gives is 30 hours.
Then she asks “I have a 12-liter jug and a 6-liter jug. I want to measure 6 liters. How do I do it?” The bot responds by spitting out a lot of complicated nonsense.
Right now, AI is a bit like having a child with a genius-level IQ, but no emotional intelligence. Yet it is already deciding who gets mortgages, and who gets hired and it has led to charges of discrimination.
Chat GPT is also not as independent of human intervention as you might think. What makes the responses of the inquiries that you input into the bot sound so human, is an army of $15/hour grunt workers labeling photos, videos, and chunks of text to help the AI recognize, learn and respond to them. Like a clothing brand that outsources its manufacturing to an overseas company, the workers have no benefits or healthcare, and the work is on demand. While the spoils and the glory go to the executives above.
AI Needs Regulation
Eric Schmidt the ex-CEO of Google in an interview with Meet the Press said that we should allow the technologists to regulate themselves and set their own “guardrails,” when it comes to AI because government bureaucrats wouldn’t understand it anyway.
Should we trust the heads of these technology companies, many of whom are libertarian and resent any oversight at all? Again, we need to ask ourselves if we are better off than we were 10 years ago. On most metrics, I would have to say no.
There needs to be an AI agency whose sole job is to monitor and police AI. They should not be a toothless agency like the SEC which can only hand out fines, but they should be more of a policing agency like the FBI which can give jail time.
The agency should be headed by computer programmers, engineers, technologists, as well as academics, philosophers even science fiction writers who can anticipate the worst nightmare scenarios and prevent them from occurring, and yes, they should even have their AI that is trained specifically on ferreting out crimes related to AI.
There is already a blueprint for an AI bill of rights, that puts restrictions on data use, discrimination, and safe usage, but this needs to be fleshed out more and turned into law. Even if they will be hard to enforce, it at least draws a line in the sand so that we can delineate what is on the right side of the law and what isn’t.
There need to be restrictions on what jobs AI can replace, or at the very least there should be oversight on them. Investigative journalism still acts as an important watchdog to curtail the abuse of power. This should not be left to an AI.
To this the technologists would answer, if we do this we will fall behind in the development of AI. I say, so what. China probably already has surpassed the US in the development of AI based on the number of patents they have filed, the number of papers they publish, and the fact that they have far more data on its citizens than any country in the world probably does.
Having control over massive amounts of data may make for a better AI, but does it make for a better world or a society that we want to live in? That is the question we need to keep asking ourselves as we develop this technology.
Google/Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook have all become monopolies. Any business that has the reach that each of these companies has, into every single facet of our lives is by definition a monopoly. They need to be broken up and prevented from reconsolidating in the future.
Greater Transparency
Right now, only big tech companies can train AI because of the enormous amount of computer power, data, and human labor that it requires. However, there needs to be greater transparency and oversight as to what data is being used and how it is being used. Perhaps a citizen lobby made up of normal people could create a more democratic way of deciding the direction that AI takes.
A Tax-Payer Funded Media
Good journalism is as essential to a fair and open democracy, as voting is. While AI might be able to write it is not a journalist who is concerned with reporting the truth. One way to ensure that journalism survives could be to tax the search and social media companies and reallocate this money toward rebuilding local newspapers and creating other independent media outlets that are not overly reliant on corporate ad revenue while remaining independent from government interference. This would be a truly independent press.
The U.S. was a country that was founded on the principle of living free from tyranny. In the almost 250 years since its founding, it has not always held to those values, it has nevertheless remained a beacon of hope for refugees fleeing oppressive societies. However, if we allow AI to take over all facets of our decision-making, instead of being a country ruled by wealthy landowners, we could very well become a tyrannical state ruled by wealthy techno-oligarchs enabled by a very powerful AI.
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Regardless of main academic positive factors for ladies, the wage hole between women and men hasn't modified because the begin of the millennium, based on two current research.One examine discovered that girls solely make 82 cents to each man’s greenback in 2022. That’s regardless of ladies incomes 42% of school levels in comparison with males’s 32% as of 2020.Whereas it isn’t clear why the gender hole persists, there might be one compelling purpose: having a household.Senior researcher and creator of Pew Analysis Heart's “The Enduring Grip of the Gender Wage Hole”, Rakesh Kochhar, has studied economics for thirty-six years. He instructed Yahoo Finance that the gender hole has continued due to a “motherhood penalty”.“The gender wage hole coincides with parenthood. When ladies transition to motherhood, there is a rise within the gender wage hole,” Kochhar mentioned.( Picture Credit score: Getty Inventive)The dad premiumKochhar mentioned that due to a double commonplace, ladies’s wages stagnated and didn’t match their male counterparts. Fathers have made rather more than moms — what Kochhar known as a “ fatherhood premium.”“Fathers tended to earn extra as a result of they labored extra hours. They labored on common 40 hours every week, whereas moms labored 37 hours every week. Employers rewarded fathers who had youngsters at dwelling and fathers earned greater than ladies who did and didn’t have youngsters at dwelling,” Kochhar mentioned.Age was additionally a consider ladies lagging behind males. The Pew examine discovered that as ladies entered into their peak childbearing years of 25-34, they earned lower than males— about 92% of males’s wages. Nevertheless, as ladies within the 35-54 age vary earned 83% as a lot as male staff.Additionally, Kochhar mentioned: As ladies depart and re-enter the workforce, they lose floor to males who by no means left the workforce. The examine discovered that moms ages 25-44 earned 85% as a lot as fathers. Ladies with youngsters at dwelling ages 45-54 earned 81% as a lot as males with youngsters at dwelling.Racial gapsAlong with age gaps, there are additionally racial variations within the gender wage gaps. The Pew examine discovered that white ladies earned 83% of what white males earned. Kochhar mentioned that minority feminine staff fared worse. Black ladies earned 70% and Hispanic ladies solely earned 65% was a lot as hite males.Story continues“There may be discrimination that causes the wage hole. There are additionally totally different training ranges, with Black and Hispanic ladies having decrease charges of four-year faculty than white males,” Kochhar mentioned.Despite the fact that Asian ladies are closest to earnings parity with white males, they nonetheless lag behind, making 93 cents for each white man’s greenback.Kochhar additionally mentioned that the kind of jobs women and men have additionally contribute to the wage hole. Males who had union blue-collar jobs or high-income tech careers earned greater than ladies in service jobs.“Males usually tend to have blue-collar and STEM jobs that are inclined to pay extra. Ladies usually tend to have service, healthcare, and training jobs, fairly low-paying jobs,” Kochhar mentioned.Household depart affect?One other examine, “Why Did Gender Wage Convergence in the USA Stall?” from the Nationwide Bureau of Financial Analysis ( NBER), finds that the Household Medical Go away Act ( FMLA) could have sarcastically widened the gender wage hole.The act signed in 1993 by President Invoice Clinton offers 12 weeks of unpaid depart to new dad and mom who're workers of firms with greater than 50 staff. Whereas the act offers household depart to all dad and mom, moms predominately take household depart after they offer start.The idea of the examine: the Present Inhabitants Survey of almost 2.5 million full-time female and male staff aged 18-65 from 1975-2015. NBER researchers found that household depart insurance policies diminished gender wage parity by 76% to 96%.
( Picture Credit score: Getty Inventive)“Ladies usually labored fewer hours as a result of they took extra maternity depart. The FMLA led to decrease promotion charges for ladies and better wage progress for males," Benjamin Posmanick, one of many examine's authors, mentioned.The NBER examine cited a Division of Labor survey, which famous that girls took 37 extra days of household depart than males do. Posmanick added: “After the FMLA was applied, larger wages have been supplied to males. Discrimination towards ladies who took household depart led to the gender wage hole."How employers may assistWhereas the authors of each research had no coverage suggestions, they mentioned that employers can take motion. Kochhar, for instance, mentioned employers may give extra ladies distinguished, senior roles within the office — and thus larger wages.“Ladies working extra full time and in managerial positions may change the gender wage hole,” Kochhar mentioned.Ella Vincent is the non-public finance reporter for Yahoo Finance. Comply with her on Twitter @bookgirlchicago.Click on right here for the newest private finance news that can assist you with investing, paying off debt, shopping for a house, retirement, and extraLearn the newest monetary and business news from Yahoo Finance
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Today, tech workplaces are white-hot centers of labor organizing. Tech workers are reconceiving of themselves as workers first, techies second — and that’s leading them to connect their struggles to the “blue collar” workers who drive rideshares, pack boxes, label AI data and handle irate customers.
The shrinking dream of the tech worker — from “maker of a dent in the universe” to “disposable source of free cash-flow for a stock-buyback” —has goosed the already-surging rise of labor agitation in tech workplaces, turning a surge into a flood.
-The proletarianization of tech workers: If there is hope, it is in the proles
#eric flint#science fiction#tech workers#labor#unions#there is power in the union#sf#labor organizing#proletarianization
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America's worker-boss war is just beginning: expect more conflicts across blue and white-collar industries in 2023
America’s worker-boss war is just beginning: expect more conflicts across blue and white-collar industries in 2023
But the strong labor market that gave workers the firm upper hand over their bosses seems to be slowly receding. Last month, amid widespread layoffs (mainly in the tech space), unemployment grew to 3.7% from 3.4% six months earlier. But even though it’s not what it was earlier this year, it’s still holding tight: In October, there were 10.3 million open jobsnearly double the average of each…
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Is Tech Recruitment tough?
Finding and attracting top talent is never simple. And hiring tech professionals in particular is a difficult task. Recruiting tech talent comes with various challenges for HR specialists and recruiters. Candidates sit for a lot of interviews but don’t get the benefitted result. Companies find it very difficult to find the most skilled technicians for their firms. Whether it is oil and gas, marine, offshore, medical, chemical and pharma, IT, or any other industry the technician recruitment agency is the best option to ask for a workforce for blue collar and white collar jobs.
AJEETS is the leading technician recruitment agency in India providing its services across the globe. Whether it is oil and gas, marine, offshore, Chemicals and Pharma, medical, IT, or any other industry AJEETS provides the best staff for your company. AJEETS knows how to manage Human Resources for different clients. AJEETS assists applicants in realizing their aspirations of working in the top nations. The hiring process requires competent management and professionals to oversee the entire process. Finding and placing the right people in the correct roles within the business is the process of manpower planning. Due to its size, it involves the training and development of personnel. Management of human resources is another name for it. Beyond staffing, human resource management has a wide range of applications. There are various operations in AJEETS, including Examining and determining the present workforce inventory, establishing future workforce predictions, growing employment programs, and creating educational systems.
Performance and assessment are the two key components of worker supply. These two areas, evaluation and performance management, are the most important in the development of human resources since they are a process that improves organizational performance. The long-term goals of the business and the administration are outlined along with the employee's strengths and weaknesses in a retrospective analysis of their work performance. Through participation, involvement, and the formulation of organizational management goals, performance management gives the prospect of boosting organizational performance.
As the leading technician recruitment agency, we have an experience in the whole management process and we make sure that both the candidate and the client must be benefitted. We recruit technicians for oil and gas, construction, hospitality, construction, retail, logistics, etc. Our commitment to going above and beyond to provide the best solutions to our clients has been the cornerstone of our long-standing reputation. The standards set by our candidates and clients have always been met by AJEETS. Along with employing applicants, we also support them with their overseas migration. When they migrate, we assist them in obtaining their visas and other procedures.
We have a distinctive hiring approach because we are a full-service labor provider. In order to distinguish itself from rivals, the leading technician recruitment agency makes sure that both employers and job seekers are successful. Before attempting to match them with the skill sets on our list of potential candidates, we make an effort to understand the business's lists of both short- and long-term requirements. Our strategy brings the parties together and produces excellent outcomes. The ideal candidate for your industry is chosen by AJEETS experts. To ensure you receive the best match for your sector, we analyze candidates using a variety of skill sets.
Because these vocations entail a lot of travel and relocation, we look for people who can adapt to the surroundings and employment requirements of the places they are assigned to. Candidates must successfully complete tests that have been precisely developed by our recruitment professionals.
Remuneration is a key element of the deal as well. As one of the top technician supply companies in India, we resolve all issues with the package that the business will send. Following the interview, AJEETS gets in touch with the chosen candidate to go through the remuneration package offered by our client company. They assist the candidate in negotiating the compensation package and other perks that have been granted.
AJEETS recruits human resources from countries like India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Kenya, and Uganda. As the top skilled technicians, AJEETS can help you with finding, training, scheduling, and managing workers, saving you time, energy, and money. Instead, we'll take care of everything so you can concentrate on finishing more work. We make sure the person we hire for your company is qualified for the role and will contribute to its expansion. We are a seasoned hiring company because of how long we have been in this business. Before selecting a candidate for the position, we ensure that all required paperwork is in place, the remuneration must be discussed and agreed upon, and the visa application process is moving along as planned. AJEETS provides its services across the globe such as the Middle East, Far East, Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific.
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working in technology is such a strange thing. the majority of people constantly complain and grumble and use coded language to signify their displeasure. but there doesn’t really seem to be much support for unionization. if people in tech don’t like their working conditions, they just leave and find a better place to work.
that feels harmful to me. i get being fed up or done but why not organize? why not push back? is it a comfort thing? is it purely a class thing? (white collar vs blue collar) is it just seen as a waste of time? why do workers in technology fail to advocate for themselves and their labor in the same way other sectors do?
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