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Comment by inglor_cz | Hacker News Reader

This is really feudalism replayed.

If you know important people at the emperor's court, you have a chance to get yor problem solved.

Not really just feudalism. But how most parts of the world work

A secret set of rules, a single party that is the judge, jury and executioner, an opaque resolution process that involves backchannels rather than merit, and no oversight ? Is that really something to accept as inevitable ?

Yes, networking is inevitable. Transparency and accountability are hedges against this, but incentives aren't there short of some sort of massive public pressure.

Massive public pressure means.... sounds like legislation to me.

Yes. It’s literally called “The Iron Law of Oligarchy.”

Definitely seems like a class system, you’re either above the algorithm or below it.

It’s really not, least of all because feudalism didn’t have emperors.

What? Even if we ignore China or Japan, the existence of the Holy Roman Empire overlapped that of feudalism in Europe.

The Holy Roman Empire was pretty much prototypical for feudalism and definitely had emperors

Dark ages Europe wasn't the only example of feudalism in history.

It's not "feudalism", it's human social relations and power dynamics.

Democratic societies try to limit this problem by establishing some semireliable channels to remedy injustice, though.

I don't think anyone considers this to be in the realm of injustice.

Anyone? That is a strong word.

At least I would consider losing an important asset based on a whim of an algorithm without a possibility of appeal to humans quite a gross injustice, though within the limits of the law as it stands today.

I do consider it injustice, in the everyday sense of the word (not legal).

It's definitely in the realm of injustice; how could it not be?

It's not "power dynamics", it's freedom to innovate

What if his post had not been seen or he didn't know HN. Google etc are the gatekeepers they decides what allowed and what isn't.

Unregulated power dynamics are basically feudalism. (Well, feudalism put in some regulations...)

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