多元宇宙中的‘功能退化’现象Pluralistic: The enshittification multiverse (27 Apr 2026)

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The enshittification multiverse (permalink)

It's official: you have my consent and enthusiastic blessing to apply "enshittification" to things that aren't digital platforms! Semantic drift is good, actually:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/14/pearl-clutching/#this-toilet-has-no-central-nervous-system

With that out of the way, let's talk about how enshittification can be usefully applied to gambits that worsen something in order to shift value from the users of that thing to the person doing the worsening.

Here's the crux: in life, there are many zero-sum situations in which others' pain is your profit. The most basic example of this is profit margins: as your profit margin climbs, so do the prices paid by others. The more money a customer gives you for whatever you're selling, the less money that customer has to spend on other things they want.

This is the fatal flaw in the economist's justification for surveillance pricing (when the price you're quoted is based on surveillance data about the urgency of your needs and your ability to pay): a seller who commands higher prices from a buyer deprives other sellers of that buyer's money.

The airline that knows you can't miss a funeral and also knows how much purchasing power is available on your credit card can charge you every cent you can afford – but that means that the coffee shop owner who normally sells you a latte in the morning will lose out on your business for months while you dig yourself out of that hole.

Tim Wu has a good example of this: imagine a world in which electricity utilities were unregulated and got to charge "market rates" for their products. Prior to the current wave of cheap, efficient solar, electrical power was a "natural monopoly." In nearly every circumstance, a given person would end up with just one source of power, and life without power was nearly unimaginable. In that situation, the power company's "rational" decision would be to charge you everything you could afford for the least electricity you could survive on: enough to keep your fridge and a few lights on. That means that you would be deprived of the value of, say, a clock radio and a coffee-maker, and the manufacturers of the clock radio and the coffee-maker would likewise suffer the loss of your business.

So the "monopoly" part is key to this story. The more alternatives you have, the harder it is to squeeze you on prices. Airport concessionaires can charge $12 for a Coke on the "clean" side of a TSA checkpoint because realistically you can't leave the airport and get a Coke elsewhere – and if you do, you can't bring it through the checkpoint.

任何形式的锁定效应都会成为将价值从客户和供应商那里转移到自己手中的契机。高昂的“转换成本”始终是恶质化的先决条件——否则，你试图恶质化的人只需另寻他处即可。

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

这就是为什么市场集中如此核心地嵌入在恶质化叙事中：当一个行业的竞争者数量减少至形成卡特尔（或双头垄断、垄断）时，企业便容易固定价格，使消费者不再货比三家；同时它们还能俘获监管机构，并借助国家权力阻止其他公司以更优条件进入市场。

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/small-government/

现在我们已经理解了转换成本、监管俘获和市场集中度在恶质化中的作用，让我们将其整合起来，提出一个将恶质化应用于数字平台以外事物的分析框架。

当某人有意减少你的选择，并利用由此产生的锁定效应让你处境更糟，从而让自己获益时，恶质化就发生了。

请注意，这一界定要求具备某种意图。恶质化并非仅仅是在占据优势地位时强硬议价，而是指你主动系统性地削弱他人的议价能力，以图在未来某个时机坑害他们，从而改善自身处境的行为。

因此，若商业游说团体贿赂共和党州议员通过“工作权法”，使工人几乎无法组织工会，而相关企业在之后又恶化工人的薪酬与工作条件，我们就可以称之为恶质化。如果他们还能让收银员签署竞业禁止“协议”，使其在温迪家工作时非法获得麦当劳每小时多赚25美分的机会，那就更是典型的恶质化操作了：

https://pluralistic.net/2025/11/10/zero-sum-zero-hours/#that-sounds-like-a-you-problem

又或者，若糟糕的男人游说废除反歧视法律（使单身女性更难靠工资维生），并终结无过错离婚制度（让女性在遭遇职场歧视时更难离开丈夫），以便未来可以肆无忌惮地做糟糕的丈夫却不必失去妻子——这正是对婚姻的恶质化（把这一逻辑应用到试图废除“婚内强奸”概念的努力上，留给读者自行思考）。

这也同样适用于政治领域。限制移民流入和迁出都是国家层面恶质化的前奏，因为无法迁往其他州的群体平均而言会更容忍政客施加的更多虐待而不选择离开。将工作签证绑定雇主的做法，无疑非常有利于恶质化得逞：

https://prospect.org/2026/04/22/north-carolina-farm-stole-h-2a-visa-workers-passports-lawsuit-trump-immigration/

我经常被问到的一个问题是：“AI 和恶质化有什么关系？”这是个复杂的问题！显然，AI 极易发生恶质化：作为“黑箱”产品，其输出不可靠且非确定性，这为 AI 产品的恶质行为提供了天然的掩护空间。

如果你让聊天机器人推荐一款商品，结果它把你引向一个质量较差但能为公司带来更高佣金的产品，你怎么能确定是机器人作弊，还是这只是它的“幻觉”？同样地，当你要求聊天机器人解决问题时，如果它以一种极其低效的方式解决（消耗大量你需付费的 token），这是机器人故障，还是价格欺诈？

https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/16/jackpot/#salience-bias

除此之外，AI 在传统的“去人性化”（enshittification）过程中依然非常有用。基于监控的定价——即根据对方是否走投无路或支付能力来调整价格或工资——正是 AI 擅长做的事：

https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/21/cod-marxism/#wannamaker-slain

AI 公司还可以通过传统方式“去人性化”其产品：一旦客户将 AI 深度整合进生活与业务中并难以抽身，这些公司便可提高价格、插入广告，或将查询路由至成本更低、输出更差的基础模型。

但这里存在一个关键区别：对盈利性科技业务（如应用商店或搜索引擎）进行“去人性化”，与对 AI 产品进行“去人性化”不同。AI 是人类历史上最烧钱的项目。目前 AI 公司和其“前沿模型”已投入超过 1.4 万亿美元，深陷亏损泥潭，我看不出任何一家企业有生存下去的可能：

https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/16/pascals-wager/#doomer-challenge

因此，一方面，随着这些公司愈发资金紧张，它们会强烈倾向于“去人性化”其产品；但另一方面，如果无论做什么都注定失败，那么破产之时自然就是“去人性化”完成之日。

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#25yrsago Jakob Nielsen 谈声誉管理者 https://www.nngroup.com/articles/reputation-managers-are-happening/

#25yrsago EFF 推出的友好共享音乐许可证 https://web.archive.org/web/20010429045301/https://www.eff.org/IP/Open_licenses/20010421_eff_oal_pr.html

#25yrsago Speedle：网上哪些链接被转发最多？https://web.archive.org/web/20010401084047/http://www.speedle.com/

#20yrsago 悼念城市活动家 Jane Jacobs https://web.archive.org/web/20061009063708/http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story?id=fe1de18f-6b6e-473d-b0cb-0cc422dcf661&k=25935

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#20yrsago Vista’s endless parade of warnings won’t create security https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/04/microsoft_vista.html

#15yrsago Passover poem about robots: “When We Were Robots in Egypt” https://reactormag.com/when-we-were-robots-in-egypt/

#15yrsago Naipaul’s rules for beginning writers https://web.archive.org/web/20110508152004/http://www.indiauncut.com/iublog/article/vs-naipauls-advice-to-writers-rules-for-beginners/

#15yrsago Rules for golfing during the blitz https://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/04/stiff-upper-lip.html

#15yrsago New Zealand’s rammed-through copyright law includes mass warrantless surveillance and publication of accused’s browsing habits https://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/4922854/Copyright-change-about-more-than-idle-threats

#15yrsago State Dept adding intrusive, semi-impossible questionnaire for US passport applications https://web.archive.org/web/20110427025422/https://www.consumertraveler.com/today/state-dept-wants-to-make-it-harder-to-get-a-passport/

#10yrsago A Burglar’s Guide to the City: burglary as architectural criticism https://memex.craphound.com/2016/04/25/a-burglars-guide-to-the-city-burglary-as-architectural-criticism/

#10yrsago EFF to FDA: the DMCA turns medical implants into time-bombs https://www.eff.org/files/2016/04/22/electronic_frontier_foundation_comments_cybersecurity_in_medical_devices_.pdf

#10yrsago James Clapper: Snowden accelerated cryptography adoption by 7 years https://web.archive.org/web/20160425161451/https://theintercept.com/2016/04/25/spy-chief-complains-that-edward-snowden-sped-up-spread-of-encryption-by-7-years/

#10yrsago Australian MP sets river on fire https://web.archive.org/web/20170518083229/https://www.yahoo.com/news/australian-politician-sets-river-fire-protest-fracking-064640159.html

#10yrsago Fantasy accounting: how the biggest companies in America turn real losses into paper profits https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/business/fantasy-math-is-helping-companies-spin-losses-into-profits.html

#10yrsago Leading Republicans send letters in support of Dennis Hastert, pedophile https://www.chicagotribune.com/2016/04/22/more-than-40-letters-in-support-of-hastert-made-public-before-sentencing/

#5yrsago Guess who's doing a usury in Iowa https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/24/peloton-usury/#going-nowhere-fast

#1yrago Every complex ecosystem has parasites https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/24/hermit-kingdom/#simpler-times

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