The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Part 1): Of systems absent, dangerous and out of control
Poor Mickey Mouse, Sorcerer's Apprentice. Overworked, underpaid and desirous of a higher station in life.
A mouse of good intentions. His actions are perhaps not driven entirely by laziness, greed or lust for power but it all goes sadly awry.
He sees a way of putting things to work for himself.
To get more done. To increase productivity and drive efficiency.
I’ll let you watch the cartoon for yourselves.
His mistake?
If he’d put a tier of middle management or an IT system in right away then he wouldn’t have known he’d made one!
He should have brought in EDF or Capita.
The results wouldn’t have been any different but at least everyone could pretend that they were and make some money out of the unremitting disaster.
In Part 2 we see Mickey’s subconscious becoming detached from his earthly concerns and he starts to relive the endless PowerPoint presentations he’s been subjected to by the shark like outsourcing giants and software companies.
In this sequence he is literally lifted out of reality.
All the elements and powers are at his command. At the merest gesture of his finger great events will be brought into motion.
Maybe Mickey is a Junior Minister?
All that whizzing and popping and whooshing and smoke.
For gods sake don’t give him the Defence Department.
In Part 3 and the story starts to become clear.
This isn’t just Disney’s Fantasia. It’s an allegory for the modern age.
As the system reproduces and replicates itself ad infinitum. We see automatons taking over with no need for Mickey or his kind anywhere in this new world.
Yes!
It’s New Public Management!
It’s Big Industry! It’s Big Pharma! It’s Big Consultancy!
It’s a Big Intractable Mess.
A recent newspaper clipping
Software prompts for telesales staff
Telesales staff working on behalf of Tesco Mobile will be prompted over what to tell customers by computer software which will listen to their calls. Outsourcing specialist Capita said it would introduce new technology after Tesco Mobile renewed its contract, worth nearly £58m.
Several years ago I was doing a lot of research into charities and social enterprises particularly into the space for service provision which had been opened up through the Big Society rollout (forgive me if that wasn’t the cause this does go back a bit!).
Being a reasonably diligent chap, I did on occasion contact organisations if something was glaringly wrong on their website.
I didn’t often get a reply which isn’t overly reassuring. You just have to accept that people are in general massively overworked and underpaid. If a small organisation, things can be frantic and chaotic. If a large organisation the chain of forwarding on to someone who may have responsibility or an ability to respond, becomes another thing on someone’s desk that they don’t need and certainly not something that they have to do — it gets put to the side, neglected and forgotten.
There was one service though that I made an extra effort with.
It was a service provided by a charity for women who had been sexually assaulted. The big red phone numbers were there. An online form was provided with words of encouragement and compassion.
This was an organisation that was there for people at a time when they really needed someone to be there.
I noticed something amiss with their website though and sent an email through to let them know.
After a couple of weeks there was no reply and also no change to the website.
So, I tried calling.
And there was no one there. Ever.
It was in an unrelated meeting where I by chance learnt that the charity was no longer operating.
Yet there it was.
Online and seemingly operational.
Speaking to people. Comforting them. Assuring them. That it was there for them.
It was one of those things that really got to me.
I mean it simply just shouldn’t happen that in a seemingly advanced country this becomes the state of things.
It’s explainable but that doesn’t make it all right.
With Big Society certain types of services and provision could be placed outside of state responsibility. But who became responsible?
The extinct charity didn’t just have a ghost existence on the web, it would have also existed in a myriad of comments and listings and newgroups and directories. Online and offline.
Just when you need someone to talk to. They’re not there and they won’t ever get back to you.
How on earth is that supposed to make someone feel?
The experienced personal and social effect is directly related to an absence.
The absence not notable or noticeable by the system.
How many holes are there in the safety nets we rely on?
Blockchain…
There a large number of exciting technology start-ups who are working with blockchain and organisations called Distributed Autonomous Organisations.
I’m not keen on many uses of blockchain.
Bitcoin is one example. Yeh, yeh, yeh. I get it. Yada, yada, yada. Whatevs.
But did you know this? It can’t be turned off.
It’s decentralised and autonomous code that is going to keep on running as long as someone somewhere is running the program. It doesn’t even need to be a person deciding to run it. It could be a piece of code or a virus copying itself onto neglected servers and executing in secret.
Bitcoin uses loads of electric, I mean it’s like the same amount as a small country. It is definitely contributing to CO2 emissions and climate change.
But you can’t shut it down. Governments can’t even shut it down.
Nobody is in charge!
DAO’s carry this odd premise as badge of honour.
“The goal of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization isn’t just to reduce human inputs — it’s to eliminate them entirely…
…
The final goal is an organization that requires no human input whatsoever and can not only function well but also make thoughtful changes to its structure without prompting.” — Investopedia
Without reading back over the topic these organisations create contractual obligations onto the blockchain, getting around all of that awkward crap we might otherwise call human beings, human needs, employment legislation, intelligent intervention, human rights or common sense.
It’s already a nightmare when ‘the computer says no’ and there is no actual real human being somewhere to talk to, investigate or override.
The nice thing about the way we created things like ordinary companies, legislation and roles is that things can always be changed. You can if you don’t like things get lawyers and unions involved. You are able to sue.
DAO’s seem to think all of this unnecessary.
Personally, I think a lot of it needs testing in court.
These things can run away with themselves if we’re not careful.
In Europe there is a right to be forgotten.
It’s very obviously developed on top of a robust set of existing legislation and philosophy around the concepts of rights and freedoms.
It means that you can contact companies like Google and ask that search results relating to you are removed.
I can’t imagine anything more sensible.
I think it would be rather prudent and foresighted to extend this to being free to purge yourself from every corporate database — at whim.
It’s not like the world would end.
In fact, an important part of the world. Our experience as free citizens in a free society would be returned to a former glory.
Blockchain though is hyped as being immutable.
Once data is placed onto the blockchain it is there to stay.
You can’t make a request to remove it.
You can’t seek resolution in law.
You can’t rectify or correct it.
You can’t sue anyone!
Nobody is in charge!
The cryptographic keys that are used to protect the data today may appear criminally weak and inept in years to come.
But who is at fault?
Sovereign Cars? It’s a common name for a minicab company.
It might also become something far, far worse.
I read once a story which illustrated the potential of blockchain and DAO’s.
An autonomous vehicle rides the streets of an unknown city. It picks up fares. It makes deliveries. It asks no questions. It tells no secrets.
24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year.
It works out its routes and calculates its earning potential with ruthless precision. Everything is measured and monitored so that pennies can turn into pounds.
Road conditions, weather patterns, local events, shift times, and even the litter on the street, all feed into the algorithms which make up its electronic mind.
In car sensors generate data that is compared against part and component wear, tear, fault and replacement databases. It knows when to book itself in to the fully automated garage. It will arrange for this in the most efficient way.
It manages its own monies. It earns as a driver would but at a level which no human could sustain themselves with any form of life or dignity.
It pays its own bills. Its insurance. Its vehicle tax. Its emissions charge.
It makes choices.
It can upgrade and downgrade itself in order to access more lucrative markets and sectors of the population.
It has no boss. Nobody can tell it what to do.
A percentage of earnings are allocated to an untraceable Bitcoin account specified within obscure and obfuscated DAO code. The entire arrangement is purposefully arcane and byzantine.
The car is part of the actual economic system and our physical world.
At the same time, it is part of something illicit. Participating invisibly in a system of financial concealment.
Nobody tells them what to do either.
How can we know any longer if they are human or machine?
It’s terrifying isn’t it.
The thought that you could create an economy which in all honesty doesn’t need people. It just needs to service itself in a never-ending chain of consumption.
You just program it in and let it go.
Will the last one to leave please turn off the light?
That’s a joke by the way.
Because you won’t be able to.
And nor will anyone else.
