(Your Job) Is a Video Game

arctother writes: UberDRIVE—Uber's simulation/video game/recruiting tool—is, at best, just a poor copy of a much more interesting video game – driving for Uber. The main innovation of Uber, and other smartphone-enabled "e-hailing" car services, is the insertion of a new interface into the human-to-human, on-the-street interactions between drivers and passengers. Uber attempts to transform the cab-driving and -riding experience through the deployment of an allegorithm: the productive joining of a framing narrative (or "allegory") and software-mediated control (or "algorithm"). Understanding how allegorithms shape experience will become more and more important as they are increasingly deployed with mobile interfaces to reshape and "augment" social interactions. "Ingress," you are already thinking; but you should really think of "Uber."

Comments

What the fuck am I reading?

[Anonymous Coward]

What is this article supposed to tell me?

Terribly written synopsis

[wired_parrot]

The synopsis reads like a poorly written press release from an illiterate goat herder trying to promote his personal blog. Slashdot should be ashamed of putting this in its front page.

Incomprehensible

[Mr. Freeman]

The summary sounds like it was written by a retarded monkey that had a stroke halfway through the paragraph. The blog post (not article) isn't any better.