Althouse: "We are machines, we are robots, we plug our scanner in, we're holding it, but we might as well be plugging it into ourselves."

November 25, 2013

"We are machines, we are robots, we plug our scanner in, we're holding it, but we might as well be plugging it into ourselves."

"We don't think for ourselves, maybe they don't trust us to think for ourselves as human beings, I don't know."

28 comments:

rhhardin said...: I'm all right Jack.; 11/25/13, 6:18 PM
Bob R said...: I wander what are the psychological risks of being a concern troll for hire.; 11/25/13, 6:18 PM
Bob R said...: Wander, wander, oh I wander - Who? Who wrote the book of British labor laws?; 11/25/13, 6:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Humanoids don't think. If they could think, they wouldn't be working there.

What the heck do they want to think about anyway? Those who are paid to think designed the scanners and the process so those who are paid to plug in the scanner and scan can plug in the scanner and scan.

Amazon has a lot of money to pay those who think to design and build robots who don't complain.; 11/25/13, 6:32 PM
Anonymous said...: It's good to see the Professor getting a job:

"Marmots typically live in burrows (often within rockpiles, particularly in the case of the yellow-bellied marmot), and hibernate there through the winter. Most marmots are highly social and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed."

From wikipedia.; 11/25/13, 6:51 PM
Deirdre Mundy said...: I worked in a warehouse after college for a few months. We didn't have scanners, just printed lists.... but the Amazon requirements don't sound unreasonable.

Warehouse work is hard work. It's why people don't usually make it a career, just a job until you find something better.; 11/25/13, 6:55 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: The article acts like four ten hour days a week is a terrible schedule. That seems like an excellent schedule! Three days off instead of two by mashing the fifth day into the other four. Better for families.

As to the eleven miles, that seems like a reason to desire the job. No need to hit the gym. No sedentary boredom. No creeping fat gain.

Sounds pretty great as far as menial jobs go.; 11/25/13, 6:58 PM
Big Mike said...: Yes, eventually most, perhaps all, of them will be replaced by real robots. Just as soon as the minimum wage gets high enough so that electro-mechanical robots become cost-effective vice humans.

Next question?; 11/25/13, 7:20 PM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: Does this mean Amazon is the new Walmart? I thought the Amazon guys were big Obama and DNC supporters? Did their protection money check bounce?

Anyway, its indoor work at a good rate of pay. Stop your bitching unless their are true safety issues.; 11/25/13, 7:47 PM
heyboom said...: As to the eleven miles, that seems like a reason to desire the job. No need to hit the gym. No sedentary boredom. No creeping fat gain.

When I was in my early 40's I worked a job as a loader/ramp guy for an air freight company. Eight hours, five days a week of throwing heavy bags and newspaper bundles on and off of airplanes, combined with throwing a football around with a coworker and the next thing you knew, I needed to buy a whole new wardrobe. One guy lost 60 lbs. doing that job.; 11/25/13, 7:50 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: I've been working 6 10-hour shifts a week.

Darn, I make more money. It's horrible. Someone save me.; 11/25/13, 8:34 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: If you don't like your menial job, quit. There are plenty of other menial jobs. No one is more free than someone who works for minimum wage.; 11/25/13, 8:38 PM
Wince said...: Next, after the break, Martin Bashir will tell us how Amazon workers were forced to shit in each other's mouths.; 11/25/13, 9:12 PM
KLDAVIS said...: Nah, the real machines actually work there full time. You're just a temp.; 11/25/13, 9:54 PM
n.n said...: More criticism of Obamacare? This survivor tax is not going over well.

John Lynch:

They could also start their own business. Unfortunately, most people are workers by choice and predisposition. It doesn't help that our education system is designed to churn out technicians, or that government regulates to favor established interests.; 11/25/13, 9:54 PM
The Godfather said...: There are a lot of shitty jobs. If you like your shitty job, you can keep your shitty job. But you don't have to.

Get a life.; 11/25/13, 10:09 PM
n.n said...: KLDAVIS:

This is why millions are aborted every year. Their maintenance costs are a progressive burden. As it is, reform is borrowing heavily from around today and tomorrow's world.

Perhaps overriding the natural feedback mechanisms was done with good intentions, but it is producing, in their view, an intractable problem. That may be their reason for offering a "voluntary" attrition choice.

I'm not sure if there is a solution which is reconcilable with everyone's dreams. I do not, however, favor degrading human life to a commodity or property status. That should be a choice of last resort. I wonder if catastrophic AGC/AGW/ACC or some other imminent catastrophe is guiding this "intelligent" design.; 11/25/13, 10:10 PM
n.n said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/25/13, 10:34 PM
n.n said...: The depression which is often associated with monotony can be defused through a change of scenery. If it's chronic, then a change of venue is in order.

Normally, this state change occurs many times throughout our evolution from conception to death; but, it could also be included in involuntary labor reform: recycled employment.

Hey, if we are going to follow a recycled model (e.g. abortion, deficit economics, marginalized health care), then we may as well go all the way. Let's turn this ship hard to port.

Actually, that is not a solution suggested by the Left. It does not promote consolidation of capital and control in a select minority's hands, since everyone would be subject to the same constraints. It's actually a cross of left and right paradigms, which like every other paradigm, does not address universal occupation of a beachfront property in Hawaii.; 11/25/13, 10:44 PM
Anonymous said...: Betamax3000 Robot votes 'Present'.; 11/25/13, 11:28 PM
Joe said...: I love how a reporter takes a job, does it poorly and then whines about how it is too hard.

(An old college classmate would smack him around, tell him to try working trucks for UPS or Fedex and get back to him.); 11/25/13, 11:53 PM
ALP said...: A middle aged guy with a desk/lecturn job finds a highly physical job too taxing?

Stop the presses!; 11/26/13, 2:45 AM
Deirdre Mundy said...: I know a couple of kids who took Amazon warehouse jobs right out of college... apparently EVERYONE has to start out as a picker, but the company promotes from within and will provide training...

So, not a bad opportunity. I WISH I'd had 'Amazon scanners' when I was picking books for a wholesaler! It would have made things go a lot faster, since I wouldn't have had to double and triple check to make sure I'd gotten an order perfect!

Also, a lot of Amazon jobs are night shift, which appeals to the 'not morning people' group of recent college grads....; 11/26/13, 6:51 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Sounds pretty great as far as menial jobs go."

Given that menial jobs (at menial wages) are our future, we'd all better try get in good at Amazon before all their jobs are taken!; 11/26/13, 6:58 AM
Rusty said...: Joe said...
I love how a reporter takes a job, does it poorly and then whines about how it is too hard.

(An old college classmate would smack him around, tell him to try working trucks for UPS or Fedex and get back to him.)

Ya ever notice you never see any fat UPS drivers.
Lots of chubby USPS drivers.; 11/26/13, 7:10 AM
Rusty said...: Robert Cook said...
"Sounds pretty great as far as menial jobs go."

Given that menial jobs (at menial wages) are our future, we'd all better try get in good at Amazon before all their jobs are taken!

Sounds like somebody made some poor career choices.; 11/26/13, 7:12 AM
Robert Cook said...: Rusty...it's not about the choices people will make but about what jobs will be available in future. Substantive, well-paying jobs with good benefits are disappearing, relative to the size of our working-age population, and the reality is that poor-paying menial jobs will be the jobs that are available in future, insofar as there will be any jobs available at all. Our "job-creators" are falling down on their jobs, apparently.; 11/26/13, 8:15 AM
Big Mike said...: @Robert, that's the future you are trying to build. You just don't realize it yet.; 11/26/13, 11:48 AM