“True Luddism was about locating exactly where elites were using technologies to the disadvantage of the human being, and organising to fight back. This is an important point: Luddism can and certainly did coexist with technology, and even a love of technology. The handloom, for example, made Luddites’ way of life possible, long before they became Luddites — and they cherished that lifestyle enough to take up arms to defend it. It is a matter, of course, of how technology is deployed.
Before we find ourselves entirely backed into a corner by today’s tech titans, we should ask these questions: Does their technology serve to funnel profits upstream while degrading a livelihood or destabilising a community? Are those who rely on the disrupted systems given a democratic say in how innovation will affect their lives?
The history of the Luddites — the real ones, not the pejorative figment of the entrepreneurial imagination — gives us a framework to evaluate the utility of technologies and their social impacts. Erasing that history collapses our thinking about how tech and automation affect our working lives — and the choice we have to address the disruption they bring.”
Blood in the Machine, Brian Merchant
I think I might be a Luddite.