On the Mathematical Management of People: Insight From the Ancient World

European law forbids decisions about workers – hiring, assignment, evaluation, discharge – to be made solely by automated means. The justification, apart from concerns for non-discrimination, accuracy, consistency, and transparency, commonly recites the need to protect human dignity; but, how and why that would be infringed by mathematical management is rarely explained in any depth. This discussion situates the origin of the connection to the Ancient World. It explains historically how we could think of mathematical management that way; and, today, why we should.