We hail you, Richard Akrwright, of legend untold
You reviewed the facts, ignored the scorn and scold
While Luddites were blamed for stagnation, you beckoned a new age
Set the trends for future technology in this modern-day sage

#richardarkwright #luddites #techtitan #innovation #ode #poetry

https://www.engadget.com/hitting-the-books-blood-in-the-machine-brian-merchant-hachette-book-group-143056410.html

This a great review of Brian Merchant's "Blood in the Machine" about #Luddites and their rebellion against the big tech of the time replacing their skilled work with machines and cheap (child) labor. Seems relevant somehow, but I’m not sure why I think that! 🙄

https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/we-should-all-be-luddites-now

🔨 Discussion autour de la #technocritique des #luddites et des liens entre les luttes passées et contemporaines, c'est jeudi 14 septembre à 18h30 à #Villeurbanne >>> https://lerize.villeurbanne.fr/agenda/de-la-revolte-des-canuts-aux-technocritiques-faut-il-briser-les-machines-140923/
Le repouet (ou le néo-pouèt depuis une instance non blacklistée de partout lol) rend le poil soyeux mais plus encore le bouche à oreille vous donnera un teint lumineux et une peau douce

Who knew we were doing the Luddites wrong?

https://overcast.fm/+_Yeji2Nug

#podcast #ScientificAmerican #luddites

"The reason … so many creative workers are angry [at] #AI is not that they fear it will become so good …. It’s that, like the #Luddites, they are painfully aware how bosses will use AI against them."

"Before they took up their hammers [the Luddites] lobbied for #minimumWage|s and were ignored. It took the full might of the state to put the Luddites down and to slander their name in history as backwards-looking dummies."

by @brianmerchant
https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-08-31/column-stephen-king-i-love-you-but-youre-wrong-about-the-luddites-and-technological-progress
#opinion #StephenKing

Note: In the #DudleyMoore and the Musical #Dalek episode of #TheMuppetShow, #Gonzo does a bit wherein he attempts to defuse a bomb while reciting the works of #PercyByssheShelley.
Yes, THAT Shelley, friend of #LordByron (defender of the #Luddites) and husband of #MaryShelley (author of the novel #Frankenstein).

Never let it be said that an advanced degree in literature is pointless.
#LabourHistory #PopCulture

Speaking of #Luddites…

In 1812, poet #LordByron told the House of Lords that #framebreakers had reason to be angry: “These men never destroyed their looms till they were become useless, worse than useless; till they were become actual impediments to their exertions in obtaining their daily bread.”

The Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812, made it a capital offense.

Byron’s response was a scathing poem that is, sadly, still on point.

#peopleoverprofit #workersunite

#Folks, #AI is a natural, obvious iteration of the search engine because the search engine is no longer worth competing over as it's been deprecated like the horse and buggy vis-a-vis cars .... The #luddites saw #Satan in tractors; we see Satan in #computers

#Google #ChatGPT

The underlying pathology of that enshittification wasn't the UI, or whether it involved an app store. As the #Luddites knew, the important thing about a technology isn't what it *does*, but who it does it *for* and who it does it *to*:

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

The problem wasn't which technology we used. There is nothing inherent about touchscreens that makes them into prisons that trap users, rather than walled gardens that protect them.

6/

There *are* tools to adress the environmental impact of products: Life Cycle Assesment (LCA).

Sadly, in most cases, LCA is used by corporations to greenwash their products by chosing arbitrary system boundaries (everything is connected and there are thousands of indirect effects up- or downstream that are indeed very difficult to calculate) and usually low-quality average values for the different parameters are used (regional differences are rarely taken into account: there is a difference if you throw away the packaging in Slovenia or in the US*).
And there is a general lack of data. Direct emissions are not so difficult, you can even put a price tag (that will be definitely too low, but still...). But how in Xs name do you put a number on biodiversity loss?

Some companies are really trying and use LCA to make good decisions based on data. But don't trust the big ones. Nestle & co employ armies of desktop sustainability PR staff to fool concerned consumers and legislators with fake numbers.

And, you are totally right: LCA does not integrate long-term effects on society or more complex issues like inequality.

Notwithstandig, there are people working in this field since the 60-70s. The German word is hilarious: "Technikfolgenabschätzung" (= estimation of effects of technology).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_assessment
But apparently, these institutions either didn't do a good job, or (more probable) their warning voices weren't listened.
Take care and read about the Luddites (you'll be surprised):
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-future-encyclopedia-of-luddism/

* Because Slovenia has waay better recycling facilities than the US. Just saying, if somebody had thought otherwise...🤔
@helenczerski
#Technikfolgenabschätzung #TechnologyAssessment #LifeCycleAssessment #LCA
#Luddites #Luddism #Technology

The #enshitternet wasn't inevitable.

https://doctorow.medium.com/enshitternet-c1d4252e5c6b

#luddites #SeizeTheMeansOfComputation

@siim

In the long term this may (or may not) be the case... in the short term, like most technological 'revolutions' its #workers who are displaced & impoverished to allow the benefits to accrue to (some segments) of society.... as I've said before, in the long run the #Luddites might have been working, but in the timescale of their lives, they were absolutely right & generally continue to be so - as Keynes noted: in the long run we are dead... so the short-term effects are better focussed on!

Maschinenstürmer*innen verweigern sich nicht dem Fortschritt - sie wollen ihn menschlich gestalten! #luddites https://thenib.com/im-a-luddite/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/26/san-francisco-stop-self-driving-cars-traffic-cone-safe-street-rebel

Safe Street Rebel, "Katuturvallisuuskapina", käy San Franciscossa taistelua automaattiautojen / robottitaksien ja ylipäätään ajoneuvojen ylivaltaa vastaan, joukkoliikenteen puolesta.

Kuinka? Autot pysäytetään ensin ryntäämällä eteen, ja sitten laitetaan liikenteenohjauskeila konepellille.

👍💖

#autot #liikenne #luddites #luddiitit

#luddites in action?

luddites is most defintely a positive attribute. it's always been about power and control, and people before profit.

****

The rebel group stopping self-driving cars in San Francisco – one cone at a time

The Safe Street Rebel group has waged a war against robotaxis in an effort to end vehicle dominance in the city and promote public transport

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/26/san-francisco-stop-self-driving-cars-traffic-cone-safe-street-rebel

#fuckCars

From the pushers of the #degrowth dogma, switch to a cold shower now! 😩 #milieudefensie #luddites #energytransition #energypoverty

im guessing you'll like this one:

https://thenib.com/im-a-luddite

...kaveri laitto just 😁👍

yleisesti ottaen oon ymmärtäny luddiitteja muistaakseni kasiluokkalaisesta asti.

nykyään pitää joskus tarkentaa että olen sen lisäksi aidosti *teknologiavastainen*, eli en usko että kaikkia teknologioita voidaan käyttää ystävällismielisesti.

...jos oot eri mieltä niin oon kuullut ett #Oppenheimer on hyvä leffa. ☝️

#työ #teknologia #tulevaisuus #work #tech #future #bullshitJobs #luddites

As often happens on Mastodon, I can't find the toot where I originally got the link from, but here's a cool comic about the history of #luddites on @thenib

Read it if like me you only knew the colloquial use of #luddite

https://thenib.com/im-a-luddite/

Great, really informative comic about the #Luddites (dispelling a lot of misinformation) from The Nib https://thenib.com/im-a-luddite/

The #luddites were right. When you think of a quality product, you think hand made by a craftsperson, premium materials like wood, leather, stone, clay. You don't think injection moulded mass produced shit sold in chain stores. They aren't the punchline, we are.