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A comment on Amazon Uses a Twitter Army of Employees to Fight Criticism of Warehouses.

Re:Amazon Uses a Twitter Army of Employees to Fight Criticis... by Jerry2 on Friday August 16, 2019 @12:03AM (#20712078)
Whenever I see a news story about Amazon workers and robots, I'm reminded of Amazon's "workers in a cage" patent [1]. It has spawned a bunch of funny (or sad?) "Amazon Wagie Cage" memes as a result [2][3]... and even an art exhibit of a real-sized patent drawing [4].

Needless to say, I shop a lot less on Amazon these days and try to buy from other shops whenever possible.

[1] https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-has-pate...

[2] https://i.imgur.com/QGeNley.png

[3] https://i.imgur.com/LuEpNL4.jpg

[4] https://i.imgur.com/EhoEHqG.jpg

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Re:Amazon Uses a Twitter Army of Employees to Fight Criticis... by cperciva on Friday August 16, 2019 @01:07AM (#20712348)
Amazon's "workers in a cage" patent

You do realize that the cage is there to protect the worker, right?

If you think "worker in a cage, on top of a robot" is terrible, have you ever seen a construction crane? It is literally a robot with a cage in which a worker sits -- and just like the (never implemented!) patent from Amazon, the point of the cage is to protect the worker.

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Re:Amazon Uses a Twitter Army of Employees to Fight Criticis... by im3w1l on Friday August 16, 2019 @01:57AM (#20712512)
Having a comfy chair instead of a metal bench and glass instead of wire net makes cranes look a lot nicer than that concept art.
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Re:Amazon Uses a Twitter Army of Employees to Fight Criticis... by cperciva on Friday August 16, 2019 @02:16AM (#20712627)
Aren't patent drawings supposed to show only the essential functional elements?
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Re:Amazon Uses a Twitter Army of Employees to Fight Criticis... by im3w1l on Friday August 16, 2019 @03:27AM (#20712896)
Maybe. I personally think it's silly. Still, that's where I think the critique comes from.
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Re:Amazon Uses a Twitter Army of Employees to Fight Criticis... by cperciva on Friday August 16, 2019 @02:43AM (#20712728)
I highly doubt anyone working in an Amazon Fulfillment Centre won the Putnam Competition. ;-)
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