You best start believin in capitalist dystopias Worker #5150FF, You’re in one!

[Ari]

I needed a thread to post Capitalist Dystopian stories, like how the man so rich he’s built a daddy yacht to park all his baby yachts in is introducing the Zenbooth™ to his warehouses, a poorly soundproofed tiny box with chair and a plant that I’m sure will be watered almost entirely with piss, that amazon workers can retreat to and reach zen.

Pictured here,

Amazon will install small 'ZenBooth' meditation kiosks in its warehouses | Engadget

[ChuckF]

It is a different setting, but we have these in the cube farm areas at the office, if people need to make a quiet phone call without co-workers overhearing, or just go somewhere quieter for a little while. I have occasionally squatted in one if I have to jump on a call before I can walk back to my desk. They are suprisingly comfortable but I kind of get too stuck on how often and how thoroughly are these things cleaned to enjoy them.

Of course at Amazon I assume the door sensor and camera will carefully track usage - only to optimize placement on the floor, of course!

[Ari]

Oh yes it would make perfect sense that in an office setting people might want what is basically a bathroom stale but without the bathroom, on the other hand I wonder how many warehouse workers looked at that as another possible pee break.

Which I think is how a lot of dystopian things end up in the world, they worked well or seemed good in another circumstance so they get mass applied by people who don’t realize or care about the details.

[ChuckF]

I think in an Amazon warehouse setting, it would probably be foolhardy to view it as anything other than a trap set by management. But who knows, maybe they have data that 5 minutes of private crying can increase productivity by 2%.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I think I figured it out:

Surrounded By Frickin' Idiots - YouTube

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

:double:

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

what in the capitalist hell is a reverse financed internship mai prince philip kardega pic.twitter.com/W4YJa2282h

— riley (@fauxs3lmers) May 31, 2021

[ChuckF]

That is quite fake but I enjoy that it is not so totally implausible that is met with shock rather than dismissed. (It would be extremely illegal, though.)

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

The penalties for illegal is just a cost of doing business to be turned into a liability reported as an asset to the shareholders.

[fragment]

Originally Posted by Ari

Oh yes it would make perfect sense that in an office setting people might want what is basically a bathroom stale but without the bathroom, on the other hand I wonder how many warehouse workers looked at that as another possible pee break.

Or a place to fuck.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by ChuckF

(It would be extremely illegal, though.)

You mean because they failed to use the correct wording? ... Obviously such a thing would be a training programme. More practical than university! More valuable (and priced accordingly) than internships! Which this is definitely not!

[ChuckF]

Words and meanings. It cannot be an "internship" and one could not pay "to work" here. Should one wish to avail ones' self of experiential service offerings by entering to an agreement to pay for training services at an hourly rate, such arms-length service agreement would sit squarely outside of wage and hour laws.

[Ari]

Elon Musk’s Boring Company is here to usher in the future of travel!

Promise: Baby Hyperloop.
Delivered: Single lane tunnel cars drive in.

The Verge

There are three stops to the “LVCC Loop” system. The stations at either end are above ground, while the one in the middle is at the same 30-foot depth as the tunnels. The Boring Company used a few dozen Tesla vehicles — including Model 3 sedans, and Model Y and Model X SUVs — during the test. While the company has talked about making riders call for cars using an app, the test only required them to walk up to the next available car. Test riders then hopped in, went to one of the other two stations, and repeated. It appears most riders got between seven or eight to a dozen rides during the test.
—
One of the things increasing that total travel time was the underground station. There were times when test riders pulled into the station only to run into some congestion. The drivers have to maneuver around other parked Teslas, people getting in and out, and cars queueing up to reenter the tunnels. It’s a tight fit.

The Boring Company tests its Teslas in Tunnels system in Las Vegas - The Verge

It has been announced it’s expected to convey 4400 people per hour along the 0.8 mile single lane road. Which at over 1 person a second, seems optimistic unless they are running the cars bumper to bumper, as if they were a train or something.

And yes you read that right, they aren’t even automated, every 4-8 capacity car/van loses a seat to a driver who has to maneuver around other drivers in the tiny stations. I can’t wait for the wreck and battery fire that kills a bunch of people while damaging the tunnel so much it gets closed off and buried. As far as I can tell, if a car breaks down, the tunnel’s just closed for the day/week.

[ChuckF]

The Boring Company says the Loop will ultimately turn a 45-minute walk into a two-minute ride, though it’s not down to that level of efficiency yet (hence the test).

Ok, there is much I don't understand about that article. Were people hailing taxis to get between points on the convention center grounds? Let's say the tunnel connects 2 points that are 0.8 miles apart. Why would it take 45 minutes to move between those points on foot aboveground?

[Ari]

Looking at their site they call it a “45 minute cross campus walk” and the loop connects one side to the other, so I can only imagine they mean during a convention, if you were to stupidly walk through the crowded convention center, it would take you 45 minutes.

Here is a map of their two way line, I mean “loop.” (Huh, the Boring Companies website is hosted on SquareSpace).

[Ari]

Amazon lets algorithm fire Flex Drivers, with no human intervention.
The problem with the promise of computer learning and algorithm driven systems in a world where humans are already seen as resources to be consumed, is that it gives a great excuse for treating those workers like shit.

HR, Human Robot Relations

Flex hirings, performance reports, and firings are all handled by software, with minimal intervention by humans.
———
according to the Flex app, the selfies they took to verify their identity at the start of the shift didn’t match the driver’s license photo they uploaded when they set up the account. The driver wasn’t buying it, though, since in the shift they worked before being fired, packages the app assigned to them were not available at the Prime Now depot and thus were unable to be delivered.
“The termination email I received this morning was sent at 1:17am, but at 1:06am, just eleven minutes before, I had also received one of those generic emails reminding me that I need to pick up all of my orders,” the person wrote. “I’m assuming this isn’t coincidence, and even though the termination email specifically states ‘images’ as the reason for termination, I’m attributing it to these ‘missed packages.’”

Amazon is using algorithms with little human intervention to fire Flex workers | Ars Technica

[ChuckF]

I can't help being impressed by that.