Gig apps trap reverse centaurs in Skinner boxes
Enshittification is the process by which digital platforms devour themselves: first they dangle goodies in front of end users. Once users are locked in, the goodies are taken away and dangled before business customers who supply goods to the users. Once those business customers are stuck on the platform, the goodies are clawed away and showered on the platform’s shareholders:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys
If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men
Lots of worthy thoughts in this article.
I will add the small point that all the shitty games that Uber plays with its drivers are also terrible for the environment. The sum total miles that Uber uses to reposition its drivers, whether for a fake surge or otherwise, all clocks up against emissions and traffic and wasted parking.
The price is low because someone else is paying.
Enshittification
You should read this essay.
“Twiddling is the key to enshittification: rapidly adjusting prices, conditions and offers. As with any shell game, the quickness of the hand deceives the eye. Tech monopolists aren’t smarter than the Gilded Age sociopaths who monopolized rail or coal – they use the same tricks as those monsters of history, but they do them faster and with computers”
