Industrial revolutions, like political and military revolutions, cause upheavals. When you threaten to take away someone's lunch, they get angry. If there are enough of them and they get together, it can turn ugly.
King Ludd, head of the Luddite revolution, never existed. And the Luddites didn't actually hate technology. But why bother us with the facts? It's still a good story. Picture from "What the Luddites Really Fought Against" in the Smithsonian magazine, March 2011.
As we are at the onset of what is being called the 4th Industrial revolution, it may be wise to consider what might be a cautionary tale: the story of the Luddites.
In the early 1800s, calling the name of Ned Ludd (as likely to have existed as Robin Hood), displaced and unhappy textile workers took it upon themselves to wreck the cotton and wool weaving machines in mills around Great Britain. It was the dawn of what was later to be known as the Industrial Revolution. There were quite a few workers worried about losing their jobs.
The Luddite rebellion was crushed. Luddites were hung and shot. The government and military lined up squarely on the side of the mill owners. A mill owner is said to have boasted he could “ride to his britches in Luddite blood.”
The First Industrial Revolution
At the time, cloth was woven by skilled craftsmen who operated a knitting machine called a stocking frame. Invented 200 years prior, the stocking frame still represented the state of the art in weaving technology. It became the target of Luddite destruction and that is why most people believe that Luddites were against technology. In fact, many of the Luddites had jobs using the stocking frame. Their protests, which occurred in an economy reeling from an interminable war against Napoleon’s France, had more to do with better work and higher wages.
Still, in the middle of England was an entire textile industry and many workers did not have jobs or did not love the jobs they had. They busted up the machines, burnt the mills and took to the streets with pitchforks.
The mythical Ned Ludd is now associated, correctly or not, as anyone who hates change – or eschews the latest technology. It can be used against grandpas who won’t use emails, conservationists who rail against nuclear power (like that’s ever caused a problem)… almost every new technology that technologists are impatiently pushing.
The Rise of the Robots and AI
Compared to what’s around the corner, the Luddites had it pretty good. As I curate some engineering news, I hear there is AI that can write that article faster. I have to peer over my bifocals to wryly comment “Yeah, but it won’t be as good.” I hear IBM's Watson will diagnose patients maladies far more successfully than any doctor. I wonder if I should tell my daughter, immersed in a health education. I read about jobs for America are never coming back, despite President Trump's promises, because the robots have taken them.
Where does this end?
References
The Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future, Martin Ford, 2016
Who Were the Luddites? Evan Andrews, AskHistory.com, August 7, 2015
What the Luddites Really Fought Against, Richard Conniff, Smithsonian Magazine, March 2011
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