Luddite

Luddism is the belief that technology has alienated humans from nature. Civilization has added many layers to human life: the political, the societal, the bureaucratic, the religious, the scientific, the technological. Luddism arose in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in England as a furious response to the Industrial Revolution. As industries such as textile manufacturing mechanized, labor became less about making something than doing one small part of the process of production over and over again. Further, the increased efficiency of the machines enabled employers to shrink their workforce, leaving many without work. The English expressions "cog in the machine" and "throw a wrench in the gears" very much capture the spirit of Luddism. The Luddites protested poor working conditions by destroying machinery. Their struggle for control of their labor became a movement that cast a suspicious eye at new technology and asked "Who benefits?"

Background

In the eighteenth century, Jean Jacques Rousseau praised the simplicity of life of hunter-gatherer societies still present around the world, calling them "noble savages." He had limited direct experience of these people, but tales of their way of life reached him as colonialism spread its reach throughout the world. Inspired by Rousseeau’s idealistic view of humanity’s place in nature, the Romantic movement gained momentum. Artists in various media—such as music, painting, and poetry—glorified nature, celebrated simplicity, and criticized the often filthy, exploitative conditions of city life. For example, the poet William Blake wrote a poem about a chimney sweeper, who finds comfort in thinking of fresh green fields as he gets blackened by toxic soot while making his living. This yearning for a direct connection with nature characteristic of the Romantic movement shares with Luddism a distaste for technological systems.

The Luddites get their name from Ned Ludd, a figure of urban folklore who smashed a weaving frame early in the Industrial Revolution. An organized movement of frame destruction formed in the early nineteenth century, and they often signed proclamations and letters with the name Ned Ludd, or some variant of this name. One particular letter threatened arson and murder to the owner of a textile company should he continue to buy frames for his company. The water-powered weaving frame operated by one person could spin more wool or cotton than three to five workers by hand. In 1812, the activities of the Luddites intensified. They destroyed machinery so frequently that common criminals sometimes used the Luddite cause as a cover for their own delinquency. After a series of riots instigated by the Luddites, the Romantic poet and member of parliament Lord Byron defended the Luddites for their violent reaction against inhumane working conditions. He pleaded that their violence was an act of desperation after having their livelihood stolen from them by machinery.

Luddism changed as the philosophy of technology emerged as an academic discipline. Major events like the World Wars, the Holocaust, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima made many people anxious about the destructive impulses of humans as technology advanced. Smaller-scale incidents, such as the rash of birth defects in 1957 caused by the drug thalidomide, which was marketed to pregnant women as an over-the-counter sedative, remind the public occasionally about the dangers of unchecked technological progression. Philosopher of technology Langdon Winner argues that technological solutions to problems usually engender different, unforeseen problems. Thalidomide is a good case study for that stance. Jacques Ellul goes even further to argue that technology has taken on a life of its own and is autonomous. Its development has become an end in itself, quite apart from human ends. Hans Jonas argues that the ecological effects of technological progress are so devastating that it is necessary to adopt authoritarian government measures to stop and reverse the damage humans have done to the planet.

Impact

From 1978 to 1995, Ted Kaczynsky executed a bombing campaign against a number of universities and other people involved in the development of technology. His actions were not personally motivated; it was political. He wrote a Luddite manifesto that he published in The Washington Post and The New York Times in exchange for stopping his terrorism. He argued that as biology edged closer to mapping the human genome, genetic engineering combined with mass surveillance through computers, satellites, and communications systems would erase the freedom that many had fought hard over centuries to achieve. While his main point was about the end of human freedom, other Luddites share more in common with the original ones by opposing the loss of work and dignity through automation and mechanization. The robotics industry continues to replace human labor with technology. Some assembly lines have become almost fully automated. Even warfare has become automated with the use of drone aircraft for intelligence-gathering and bombing.

Indeed, the pace of advance in the realm of artificial intelligence is daunting. Moore’s Law states that the power and speed of microchips increases exponentially every eighteen months. There is a growing consensus that artificial intelligence will inevitably outperform humans even in tasks such as computer programming. Moreover, artificial intelligence will likely become self-replicating. Even optimists agree that in the long run, humans will probably not retain control over artificially intelligent networks. It is somewhat ironic that some of the pessimists in this debate are the very people who have made artificial intelligence possible. Bill Joy, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, thinks that we will be displaced by machinery, and that it will not end well for us. Sun Microsystems invented the java programming language that everyone who surfs the Internet uses. Luddites warn that this situation could turn disastrous, especially because the most advanced technology is often built for military applications.

The complexity of life has increased dramatically since the human prehistory of hunting and gathering. The tradition of looking at the earth, its fruits, and its other inhabitants in terms of dominion, combined with the know-how of science and technology for executing this dominion, has created an ecological crisis. Climate change, deforestation, soil erosion, and pollution are all side-effects of technological progress. Some Luddites, such as John Zerzan, believe that a return to hunting and gathering as a way of life is the responsible approach to the future.

Bibliography

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Binfield, Kevin. Writings of the Luddites. Reprint Edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2015.

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Hilton, Boyd. A Mad, Bad, & Dangerous People: England 1783-1846. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006.

Jones, Stephen E. Against Technology: From the Luddites to Neo-Luddism. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Jerónimo, Helena Mateus, José Luís Garcia, and Carl Mitcham. Jacques Ellul and the Technological Society in the 21st Century. Dordrecht; New York: Springer, 2013.

Lehman, Tom. "Countering the Modern Luddite Impulse." Independent Review 20.2 (2015): 265–283. Business Source Complete. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.

Morris, Teresa. Hans Jonas' Ethic of Responsibility: From Ontology to Ecology. Albany: State U of New York P, 2013.

O'Rourke, Kevin, Ahmed Rahman, and Alan Taylor. "Luddites, the Industrial Revolution, and the Demographic Transition." Journal of Economic Growth 18.4 (2013): 373–409. Business Source Complete. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.

Zerzan, John. Future Primitive Revisited. Port Townsend: Feral House, 2012.