Inmates forced to farm gold online in Chinese prisons

#1

Post by arb99 » Thu, May 26, 2011, 9:06 PM UTC

Inmates forced to farm gold online in Chinese prisons
thenextweb.com

Re: Inmates forced to farm gold online in Chinese prisons

#2

Post by ignifero » Thu, May 26, 2011, 9:27 PM UTC

I m trying to imagine a serial killer killing goblins... That's why it's torture.

Re: Inmates forced to farm gold online in Chinese prisons

#3

Post by ck2 » Thu, May 26, 2011, 9:39 PM UTC

How about the hundreds of thousands of prisoners in the US forced to work for pennies per hour?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_compl...

If they refuse, they are written up as uncooperative and it could affect privileges, parole, etc.

Makes many millions in profit for the states and federal government, even some judges own stock.

Ironically it's the only labor in the US that can compete with offshoring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrections_Corporation_of_Amer...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Prison_Industries

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/prisoners-help-build...

http://articles.cnn.com/1999-11-06/us/9911_06_prison.labor_1...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/may2000/pris-m08.shtml

Re: Inmates forced to farm gold online in Chinese prisons

#4

Post by hessenwolf » Thu, May 26, 2011, 9:45 PM UTC

Meh. Worse ways to be tortured.

Re: Inmates forced to farm gold online in Chinese prisons

#5

Post by flexd » Thu, May 26, 2011, 9:54 PM UTC

Grinding for gold all day but you never get to keep any of it? That is pure torture. Not only do they force you to play that game for so long all day but they also take away the only 'reward' you get for playing. I would go crazy for sure.

Re: Inmates forced to farm gold online in Chinese prisons

#6

Post by dstein » Thu, May 26, 2011, 9:58 PM UTC

I would've thought something like Mechanical Turk would be more valuable. Mining WoW gold sounds like something that could be fuuly automated. Why not have them do things that require human insight instead?

Re: Inmates forced to farm gold online in Chinese prisons

#7

Post by kennu » Thu, May 26, 2011, 9:59 PM UTC

flexd wrote: post #5

Grinding for gold all day but you never get to keep any of it? That is pure torture. Not only do they force you to play that game for so long all day but they also take away the only 'reward' you get for playing. I would go crazy for sure.

But you could still grind rep!

Re: Inmates forced to farm gold online in Chinese prisons

#8

Post by teyc » Thu, May 26, 2011, 10:00 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #3

How about the hundreds of thousands of prisoners in the US forced to work for pennies per hour? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_compl... If they refuse, they are written up as uncooperative and it could affect privileges, parole, etc. Makes many millions in profit for the states and federal government, even some judges own stock. Ironically it's the only labor in the US that can compete with of…

So true. In US, it is the chain gang.

Re: Inmates forced to farm gold online in Chinese prisons

#9

Post by arctangent » Thu, May 26, 2011, 10:09 PM UTC

In the 22nd century, when everyone has supercomputers embedded in their heads, prisoners will be forced to mine bitcoins...

Re: Inmates forced to farm gold online in Chinese prisons

#10

Post by hornokplease » Thu, May 26, 2011, 10:11 PM UTC

Original story discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2586469