Tara McMullin

@taramcmullin

Writer, podcaster, and producer baffled by the absurdity of neoliberal capitalism. Autistic feminist. Aspiring independent scholar. Amateur baker. Host of the What Works podcast and author of a book of the same name.

whatworks.fyi

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The fact that many American companies are paying paltry wages to workers while lavishing cash on top executives and investors is no happenstance. It's a policy choice. In the United States we have a tax and regulatory environment that rewards that behavior. We can decide to maintain the status quo or change it.

Judd Legum • If the U.S. economy is doing well, why do so many Americans say it's terrible?

Labor Under Capitalism and Economy

How to ask for help | Psyche Guides

Debbie Sorensen psyche.co

Emotions @ Work

That we can write the prompt or query is not an emblem of our freedom but of our surrender. We give up on what we think the words mean and let the machine process them in alien and opaque ways.

Rob Horning • Practico-inertia

Artificial Intelligence and Epistemology

It doesn’t have to be the way it is is a playful statement, made in the context of fiction, with no claim to “being real.” Yet it is a subversive statement.

Subversion doesn’t suit people who, feeling their adjustment to life has been successful, want things to go on just as they are, or people who need support from authority assuring them that... See more

Ursula K. Le Guin — 28. It Doesn’t Have To Be the Way It Is

Worldbuilding and Science Fiction

“A pile of narrow intelligences will never add up to a general intelligence. General intelligence isn’t about the number of abilities, but about the integration between those abilities.”
― Melanie Mitchell, Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans

That is, they understand the purpose of chatbots and generative models to be the ability to force other people to see a particular version of reality. It is a tool of power that masquerades as a tool of knowledge.

Rob Horning • Practico-inertia

Epistemology and Artificial Intelligence

During it, we learn to adopt a story about ourselves—what our value is, what beauty is, what is harmful and what is normal—and to privilege the feelings, comfort, perceptions, and power of others over our own.

Melissa Febos • Girlhood

The Mythical Norm

This doesn’t mean decentralized collective action can’t be effective; rather, the efficacy of action through voice within the existing platform ecosystem is limited .

A Labor Movement for the Platform Economy

Labor Under Capitalism and The Creator Economy

On the one hand, the silhouette of a self-deterministic, dream-bearing, free-roaming, modern-age worker emerges as an aspiration. Ironically, these workers are also often the most alienated from the fruits of their labor. The dichotomy between 'us' and 'them' is stark. The product sees an absence of credit or attribution to freelancers at an... See more

Tina He • A New Genre of Work

The Creator Economy and Labor Under Capitalism