The most urgent story in modern tech begins not in Silicon Valley but two hundred years ago in rural England, when workers known as the Luddites rose up rather than starve at the hands of factory owners who were using automated machines to erase their livelihoods. The Luddites organized guerrilla raids to smash those machines—on punishment of death—and won the support of Lord Byron, enraged the Prince Regent, and inspired the birth of science fiction. This all-but-forgotten class struggle brought nineteenth-century England to its knees. Today, technology imperils millions of jobs, robots are crowding factory floors, and artificial intelligence will soon pervade every aspect of our economy. How will this change the way we live? And what can we do about it?
I found out about Blood in the machine through the episode of 99% Invisible podcast of the same name.
Blood in the machine is storytelling more than anything else. It follows just a few emblematic people, recreating their life and struggle from the sources, and goes to more general lessons from there. This narrative approach makes it a very nice and relatively easy introduction to the topic, even for people who aren’t usually into nonfiction.
In George’s day, a craftsman could walk by the building where his work had been relocated to be done by a machine, while he might be hungry and the factory owner was getting richer. (In our day, that job might be shipped overseas or routed through a gig app, and the anger may be more diffuse.)
The link to the present is always clear, even in the rare occasions when it’s not stated directly. The last section is entirely dedicated to showing how the Luddites’ struggle echo the current situation and how we can leverage their thinking and their methods and organize for social justice.
I do think there’s more to be said about this book, and it’s far from perfect. This Bluesky thread on the Luddites embracing technology for social progress caught my attention:
And despite Merchant's repeated reminders that they weren't anti-tech, just anti-exploitation, we don't see in them much of a worker-centered vision for embracing labor-saving tech.
— Nathan Schneider (@ntnsndr.in) 2024-05-26T20:19:21.562Z
But what a great conclusion.
If the Luddites have taught us anything, it’s that robots aren’t taking our jobs. Our bosses are. Robots are not sentient—they do not have the capacity to be coming for or stealing or killing or threatening to take away our jobs. Management does. Consulting firms and corporate leadership do. Gig company and tech executives do.
And somehow, it remains positive and uplifting, giving us motivation rather than despair. That means the world to me in today’s literature and social movements.