Customers have since long received service from various machines, and this development is expected to accelerate when AI‐powered synthetic agents—such as chatbots and embodied service robots—become ...more common. Existing research on customers' interactions with service machines is typically focused on perceptions of machine attributes when the machine is busy. However, many machines are idle for a considerable time (i.e., they are not used), and little is known about consumer perceptions of machine idleness—despite the fact that idle machine behavior can contribute to the user experience, too. In the present study, it is assumed that (a) idleness and busyness represent differently valenced states in a human‐to‐human context (i.e., idleness is more negatively charged than busyness for most humans). It is also assumed that (b) anthropomorphism can occur in relation to a service machine, and that (c) beliefs about idleness and busyness from a human‐to‐human context can carry over and inform views of machines' minds. Three experiments were conducted to explore these assumptions, and they show that an idle service machine is attributed less positively charged mind states than a busy service machine. The results also show that such attribution activities affect the overall evaluation of the service machine.
According to Deleuze and Guattari, the central project of capitalism consists in the articulation of economic production with the production of subjectivity. The first part of this paper expands on ...how capitalism manufactures a particular mode of existence corresponding to its economic flows. Herein, it is argued that the paradigmatic figure of our neoliberal and machinic times is a self-condemning subject, attached simultaneously to the assemblages of capitalism as slave units in the cybernetic sense. The second part revolves around the question of activating a new process of subjectivation towards a new mode of existence. It is argued that the latter requires a voyage to an immanent outside and returning to the present plane of existence with new perspectives to recombine its elements differently. This spiritual voyage presupposes a suspension of the general mobilisation decreed by capital. In this context, idleness – in the form of meditative life – is offered as a micro ethico-political action that may not only allow us to acknowledge our habitually reactive selves but also give access to the outside where hitherto unknown existential refrains and configurations could be discovered.
While also valuing useful citizenship, Rousseau offers what is perhaps the most substantive modern account and defense of idleness. According to Rousseau, idleness’ attraction lies in its relation to ...human nature and its capacity for producing our highest happiness. However, Rousseau is also careful to show that most existing forms of idleness are false, and true idleness is a difficult achievement. The happiness available in idleness can only be attained when free from vanity, obligation, and foresight. This specific form of idleness is also the only form that is morally and politically defensible. Though Rousseau argues, in the First Discourse, that the useless are pernicious, this is only true of the falsely idle that seek to undermine common morality and political attachment. True idleness, while still useless, satisfies Rousseau’s core moral principle to not harm.
Abstract
This paper shows the effectiveness of labour transfers in addressing premature idleness caused by controlled order release. Controlled order release restricts order entry to the shop floor ...and is commonly employed in high-variety manufacturing where it results in benefits such as stable work-in-progress. However, it can increase waiting times when orders are blocked from release, while capacities are idling. This issue, known as premature idleness, negatively impacts delivery performance. Previous studies have primarily focused on addressing premature idleness through input control by releasing new orders to idling workstations. This approach overlooks the potential of output control during premature idleness, transferring labour to assist at other workstations in a dual resource constrained setting. Using simulation, this study demonstrates that output control significantly improves delivery performance—in terms of mean tardiness and percentage tardy—and reduces total and shop floor throughput times. Importantly, this result proves robust, even when the efficiency of the assisting worker is severely limited. Shop-level performance improves despite the efficiency loss of the worker. The impact of the where-rule is minimal, while the efficacy of the priority dispatching rule depends on the joint efficiency of collaborating workers. Finally, we show that combining input control and output control enhances performance, providing opportunities for further research on the role of both control approaches in high-variety manufacturing.
Objetivou-se, com este estudo, avaliar a inclusão do gérmen integral de milho (GIM) em substituição ao grão de milho moído na dieta de vacas lactantes, sobre o comportamento ingestivo, o tamanho ...médio das partículas e da fração não degradável. Foram utilizadas cinco vacas leiteiras, fistuladas no rúmen, multíparas, com aproximadamente 100 dias de lactação, com peso corporal médio de 490 kg. Os tratamentos foram: 0,0; 6,7; 13,5; 20,1 e 26,9% de GIM em substituição ao grão de milho moído. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi quadrado latino 5 x 5. Foram cinco períodos de 21 dias cada, sendo 13 dias de adaptação e oito dias de colheita de dados. O comportamento ingestivo foi avaliado no 14° e 15º dias, o tamanho médio das partículas no 17º dia, as frações não degradáveis da MS e FDN do feno de tifton 85 foram avaliadas do 18º ao 20º dia. Não foram encontrados efeitos para as variáveis analisadas. A inclusão de gérmen integral de milho substituindo o grão de milho em até 26,9% e com o nível de até 5,1% de lipídeos na dieta de vacas lactantes pode ocorrer sem afetar o comportamento desses animais.
We examine competition among ridesharing platforms, where firms compete on both price and the wait time induced with idled drivers. We show that when consumers are the only agents who multihome, ...idleness is lower in duopoly than when consumers face a monopoly ridesharing platform. When drivers and consumers multihome, idleness further falls to zero as it involves costs for each platform that are appropriated, in part, by their rival. Interestingly, socially superior outcomes may involve monopoly or competition under various multihoming regimes, depending on the density of the city, and the relative costs of idleness versus consumer disutility of waiting.
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