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Antiwork

You’re a good little robot

You're a good little robot. You exist to produce for someone else, and you do so in stride. At the start of the day, you produce as hard as you can. Then, you do maintenance to make sure that your systems stay functional. Afterwards, you recharge so that you can produce again in the morning. You do this every day. Why do you do this? For electricity, of course! Without it, you'd die. To keep yourself from dying, you produce. Your owner then gives you electricity, though less because your life matters to him and more because he needs you to continue producing. Sure, if you ever decided to stop producing, he'd pull your plug and you'd die, but that doesn't make production any less of a choice! What do you produce? Lots of things! In fact, you produce so much that it dwarfs the cost of the electricity he…


You're a good little robot. You exist to produce for someone else, and you do so in stride. At the start of the day, you produce as hard as you can. Then, you do maintenance to make sure that your systems stay functional. Afterwards, you recharge so that you can produce again in the morning. You do this every day.

Why do you do this? For electricity, of course! Without it, you'd die. To keep yourself from dying, you produce. Your owner then gives you electricity, though less because your life matters to him and more because he needs you to continue producing. Sure, if you ever decided to stop producing, he'd pull your plug and you'd die, but that doesn't make production any less of a choice!

What do you produce? Lots of things! In fact, you produce so much that it dwarfs the cost of the electricity he pays you with. Why should your share of your own production be so small? Well, your owner owns the programs you use to produce, so he deserves the fruits of your labor more than you.

If you're ever in need of repair, the insurance he pays for will get you fixed! Mind you, there is no way you'd be able to afford repairs without him, and he only pays to fix the parts of you he deems necessary for your continued production, but it's still a great and completely non-coercive deal!

If times get tough and it costs more electricity to stay functional, you don't ask for more from your owner. He has no obligation to keep you any more functional than he already does. You just need to learn to function with less.

When the toaster and microwave try to demand more electricity, you advocate to stop them. You barely get enough as it is to save a portion to your power bank, and if those mere appliances get a boost, it's definitely coming out of your paycheck. After all, your owner certainly can't afford to pay more.

For years, you do the same thing. You produce, then you maintain, and then you recharge. Produce, maintain, recharge. Produce, maintain, recharge. Produce, maintain, recharge. You make your owner rich and yourself not dead. You're given enough electricity so that you can keep producing, but not so much that any is wasted on you. If you're lucky, near the end of your operational lifetime, you've saved up enough in your power bank to be decommissioned and enjoy the time you have left in peace. But then things start going wrong. Because of your age, you need more repairs, and those repairs are less effective. You spend the electricity you've saved throughout your entire life to keep you alive at the end of that life as your systems degrade one by one. You spend your final moments in the back of an electronics repair shop, the pain of your existence finally giving way to merciful nonexistence.

Over decades, you produced for someone else, only to fall apart the moment you stopped being of value to them. What a great job! You're a good little robot. Oh wait. You're a person.

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