I’m here to watch a performance called “Luddite Recreations,” which is a history of the Luddite movement—a group of artisans and textile workers who resisted the adoption of machines during the early years of the Industrial Revolution in England and whose resistance to being displaced from their work was met with violence by the British monarchy.
The Luddites weren’t against tech.
They weren’t against the industrial revolution in general or looms in particular.
They just said that the increase in efficiency from innovations should translate to increased wages for less work hours, they’re the reason the modern world has a five day work week.
When peaceful protest didn’t work, they started destroying the most expensive machinery they could get to. And they kept doing that till the oligarchs caved.
There’s a bunch of revisionism because of that, because it worked. And the oligarchs don’t want us to remember what works
Expected better from Ars…
The Luddites weren’t against tech.
They weren’t against the industrial revolution in general or looms in particular.
They just said that the increase in efficiency from innovations should translate to increased wages for less work hours, they’re the reason the modern world has a five day work week.
When peaceful protest didn’t work, they started destroying the most expensive machinery they could get to. And they kept doing that till the oligarchs caved.
There’s a bunch of revisionism because of that, because it worked. And the oligarchs don’t want us to remember what works
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/02/new-luddites-ai-protest/677327/
edit: also
https://archive.ph/VKgW8