Brian Merchant

This is a fascinating account of the Luddite movement at the beginning of the 19th century. We think of Luddites as fools who were afraid of change and refused to learn new technology. Actually, Luddism was a labor movement. The Luddites were textile workers, and when wealthy industrialists tried to replace their jobs with machines, the Luddites rebelled. They weren't opposed to technology per se: they were opposed to the fact that the machines made an inferior project and robbed them of show more their livelihoods. They were very well-organized: the destruction of machines was a last resort because it was the only way they could get the attention of industrialists and politicians, and they were very careful about what they destroyed. They only attacked the specific machines that they objected to. They had very specific and reasonable demands: they wanted to be able to keep their jobs, or to receive training for new jobs, or to receive severance pay when their jobs were automated. They were a nascent labor movement, and like so many labor movements afterwards, they were repressed quickly and violently by the state at the request of wealthy businessmen.

The parallels with today's economic changes are obvious: there are a lot of people who have no problem with Artificial Intelligence itself, but do object to how AI companies are using AI to make billions of dollars while replacing people's jobs and providing no alternative employment.

Ultimately, in both time periods, the problem is that wealthy business owners get to make the decisions about how our society and economy function, usually at the expense of the majority of people. show less

History of the actual Luddites, arguing that they were far from anti-technology; what they were anti- was exploitation, immiseration, and deskilling, which owners of the new machines were forcing on them. For example, the weekly pay of a Lancashire weaver declined from 25 shillings in 1800 to 14 shillings in 1811. This was connected to the rise in cotton production due to enslavement in America. Weavers demanded that existing laws against abuse be enforced—but the wealthy factory owners show more who actually had parliamentary representation succeeded instead. Merchant draws a lot of parallels between then and now (gig work and big tech play the role of the factory owners). And, he argues, despite the immediate repression and losses suffered by the Luddites due to the fact that the UK denied most people political representation, they built a foundation for later labor protest and protections. A former head of one of Australia’s largest telecom unions also credited Luddites transported from the UK for Australia’s union tradition. show less

An excellent history of the Luddite uprising from the perspective of the workers, not the wealthy elites who have brought us the popular, and false, narrative that the Luddites were anti-technology. Merchant does a fantastic job of showing how the events of the past continue to ripple out into today. He suggests, we are ripe for a New Luddite movement, and makes a good case for it.

Terraform is Vice Media's speculative fiction arm, and these stories are internet age provocations, short, sharp, often intriguing. Divided into three sections, Watch on the panopticon, World with classic scifi alternative worlds, and Burn focusing on disaster, there are a lot of winners in this collection, and surprisingly little dross. My only overall thought is that with the stories coming in at around 7 pages (about 2.5 kilowords, if my memory is correct), at lot of these stories feel show more like the first acts of something bigger, trading a conclusion for a punchline. But on the other hand, I read them all, and any short fiction collection has at least one story that just doesn't vibe.

Some that stuck with me:
Busy - Omar El Akkad. The dystopia of make-work in a world where human labor is unnecessary, but dignity is still required.
Flyover Country - Tim Maughan. Maughan imagines an American maquiladora under a fascist regime, and the small risks that people will take for one moment of human contact.
Warning Signs - Emily L. Smith. A clever deconstruction of a vile main character in the age of #MeToo, app-enabled dating, and female-gendered AI assistants.
The Prostitute - Max Wynn. A new kind of tricking, with telepresence operated humans, and a very unusual client.
The Duchy of Toe Adam - Lincoln Michel. Dog-eared space opera with a punchline that lands!
An Incomplete Timeline of What We Tried - Debbie Urbanski. Climate fiction in the vein of J.G. Ballard on at his best. show less