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Structure — Opens on Elena (freelance writer displaced by ChatGPT), then moves through: The Freelance Cliff → The Algorithmic Boss → The Watched Worker → Subordinate/Supervisor/Teammate → The Job That Dissolves → The Productivity Paradox → The New Geography of Work → An Old Story, and a New One (Taylorism comparison) → Who Gets to Draw the Line (normative limits) → The Meaning Crisis → What Work Becomes → Summary.

Updated with 2025–2026 research: - Freelance study (Hui et al., Organization Science, 2025): ~2% fewer contracts, 5% earnings drop; top performers hit hardest (every 1% more past earnings → 1.7% more income loss) - Algorithmic management: 42.3% of EU workers (2024 EWCS) plus the newer AIM-WORK breakdown (24%/21%/13%) - Surveillance: 78% of US employers monitoring, 61% AI analytics, Gartner 35%→60% scoring projection - Productivity paradox: 53%→80% adoption, only 21% of saved time going to personal life, extra ~3 hrs/week - Skill atrophy: Lancet colonoscopy study (28.4%→22.4%), Gerlich 2025 critical-thinking correlations - Global labor: Kenya data-labeling $1.50–2/hr, WEF 170M created / 92M displaced by 2030

Coverage of all 16 scope questions — including the previously thin dimensions: a dedicated Taylorism/computerization comparison (Temporal Q10), a normative section on surveillance limits and who enforces them (Q12/Q13), and explicit epistemic hedging on surveillance-context specificity (Q14), skill-atrophy unknowns (Q15), and whether the meaning crisis is permanent or transitional (Q16).

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Last updated: 2026-07-16