Podcasting “Revenge Of the Chickenized Reverse Centaurs”

The relationship between algorithms, interoperability and worker power.

This week on my podcast, I read my Medium column, “Revenge Of the Chickenized Reverse Centaurs,” proposing a theory of the relationship between algorithms, interoperability and worker power (happy May Day!).

https://onezero.medium.com/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs-b2e8d5cda826

Let’s break it down. Start with “chickenization”: this is a labor economics term referring to industries that follow the model of the American poultry industry. A cartel of poultry processors have divided the country into exclusive territories, so that chicken farmers only have one market to sell their birds to.

These monopolists style the farmers who supply them as “independent contractors,” guarantee them no pay, but exercise control over them in ways that put the most micromanaging dickhead boss to shame.

Big Chicken tells farmers which chicks to buy, what kind of coops to raise them in, when the lights go on and off, which vets they’re allowed to use and which medicines the vets are allowed to administer. They even tell them who they’re allowed to hire to fix their coops (specifically, they bar farmers from hiring ex-farmers who speak out…