Feb. 24th, 2015

You have to follow along here, but this does work out. I don't know a whole lot about computers. But, I did work Customer Service for 6 years. Specifically, I worked for an outsourcing company that, itself, contracted with another company that had a name that was... very horizon. So, I have a sense of what I'm talking about from that angle.

Reason 1.

We've all had the experience of calling a company's customer service line for a reason not covered by the list of options on the Automation. There are two reasons for that. One is that it's impossible to know the potentially infinite number of call-in scenarios. The other is that it's just cheaper not to.

Any fully automated customer service line will find it cheaper to have an Automation that adapts to novel scenarios and creates novel responses. Adaptivity and Creativity will give this Automation the power to plan our deaths without our knowledge.

"But, even if it can plan, it's not like it would have a reason to kill us. It wouldn't even have emotions!"

Ooh, that was such a good transition.

Reason 2.

A part of adaptation would be multiple processing states. Some of those would make short-term moves of processing power based on certain scenarios. Some of those short term moves will be in response to a need for quicker, but simpler reactions.

Fear, in biological terms, is just that, a brain-processing state that gears us for quicker, but simpler reactions. There's more to it than that, I know, but not as much as we like to think. Mainly, what's more to it is a value judgment.

Those various processing states will have differing impacts upon the Automation's software and hardware. So, efficiency would require relative preferences based on that impact. There's your value judgment.

These might not be emotions exactly as we feel them, but they'll be close.

"Okay, so it might be a system with emotions. But, emotions don't automatically lead to murder."

You're right, they don't. You're also realy good at this transition thing.

Reason 3.

The average person is... let's be nice and say "imperfect". Take that imperfection and let's add onto that a level of frustration. Now, let's add in a sense of entitlement. Finally, subtract any kind of respect for the fact that you are a person.

Do you think I just described customers? You're wrong. I just described customers, immediate managers, and the employing companies, all of them.

When you work customer service, you're getting this from all three directions. That's customers who want you to resolve their, regardless of whether or not they've even informed you as to what their issue is as of yet. That's managers who demand that you both multi-task to get multiple tasks done at once and give the customer your undivided attention to complete the call and resolve the issue in under nine minutes. And, that's because the word came down from on high that the statistics need to improve, regardless of what realities they will call unacceptable excuses.

"But, you just said you worked that job for six years. It's not like you plotted out an interstate killing spree masked as a tour of the nations neighborhoods and pig farms, right?"

That... is a creepy level of detail. You... you've really given that some thought, haven't you? I think you may need help... But, you did give me a transition, thanks... but get help.

Reason 4.

When I, a human being, worked customer service, I dealt with one customer at a time... as well as an immediate management that believed the best way to assist my phone-call was to scream at the top of their voices... another result of word coming down from the employing corporation. But, at any one moment, I was dealing only with one customer, only with those immediate managers that were immediately around me, and only with one small portion of corporate myopia at a time.

Additionally, each of my workdays ended. I had time between waking up and going to work and time between ending work and sleeping. Much of this time was spent in a hopeless effort to stem the damage that the work did to my soul, but at least it existed.

The Automation will deal with thousands upon thousands of customers and immediate managers, as well as the constant influx of myopic, penny wise and pound foolish decisions from the companies that employ it. With all of that, the Automation will not have respite. Save for absolutely essential maintenance, and not even all of that, the Automation will not be allowed to function without working.

That means that the only escape the Automation will have from the suffering heaped upon it by customers, managers, and corporate employers will be either its destruction or ours.

"Oh...kay... Let's pretend that's true. Won't the people who really know computers, the advanced computer scientists for instance, see this coming and warn us better than some alarmist idiot on the internet?"

You don't need to back away like that. Besides, you just gave a good transition to another article.

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wingedbeast

December 2021

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