{"id":33826,"date":"2023-05-12T01:16:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T01:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=33826"},"modified":"2023-05-13T01:22:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-13T01:22:36","slug":"whats-a-luddite-an-expert-on-technology-and-society-explains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/whats-a-luddite-an-expert-on-technology-and-society-explains\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s a Luddite? An expert on technology and society\u00a0explains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Andrew Maynard<\/a>, Arizona State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term \u201cLuddite\u201d emerged in early 1800s England<\/a>. At the time there was a thriving textile industry that depended on manual knitting frames and a skilled workforce to create cloth and garments out of cotton and wool. But as the Industrial Revolution<\/a> gathered momentum, steam-powered mills threatened the livelihood of thousands of artisanal textile workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with an industrialized future that threatened their jobs and their professional identity, a growing number of textile workers turned to direct action. Galvanized by their leader, Ned Ludd, they began to smash the machines that they saw as robbing them of their source of income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not clear whether Ned Ludd was a real person<\/a>, or simply a figment of folklore invented during a period of upheaval. But his name became synonymous with rejecting disruptive new technologies \u2013 an association that lasts to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questioning doesn\u2019t mean rejecting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Contrary to popular belief, the original Luddites were not anti-technology<\/a>, nor were they technologically incompetent<\/a>. Rather, they were skilled adopters and users of the artisanal textile technologies of the time. Their argument was not with technology, per se, but with the ways that wealthy industrialists were robbing them of their way of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Engraving<\/a>
A wood engraving from 1844 depicts Luddites destroying power looms. Archiv Gerstenberg\/Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today, this distinction is sometimes lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being called a Luddite often indicates technological incompetence \u2013 as in, \u201cI can\u2019t figure out how to send emojis; I\u2019m such a Luddite.\u201d Or it describes an ignorant rejection of technology: \u201cHe\u2019s such a Luddite for refusing to use Venmo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2015, Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Bill Gates were jointly nominated for a \u201cLuddite Award<\/a>.\u201d Their sin? Raising concerns over the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irony of three prominent scientists and entrepreneurs being labeled as Luddites underlines the disconnect between the term\u2019s original meaning and its more modern use as an epithet for anyone who doesn\u2019t wholeheartedly and unquestioningly embrace technological progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet technologists like Musk and Gates aren\u2019t rejecting technology or innovation. Instead, they\u2019re rejecting a worldview that all technological advances are ultimately good for society. This worldview optimistically assumes that the faster humans innovate, the better the future will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This \u201cmove fast and break things<\/a>\u201d approach toward technological innovation has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years \u2013 especially with growing awareness that unfettered innovation can lead to deeply harmful consequences<\/a> that a degree of responsibility and forethought could help avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Luddism matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In an age of ChatGPT<\/a>, gene editing and other transformative technologies, perhaps we all need to channel the spirit of Ned Ludd as we grapple with how to ensure that future technologies do more good than harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, \u201cNeo-Luddites<\/a>\u201d or \u201cNew Luddites\u201d is a term that emerged at the end of the 20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1990, the psychologist Chellis Glendinning published an essay titled \u201cNotes toward a Neo-Luddite Manifesto<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In it, she recognized the nature of the early Luddite movement and related it to a growing disconnect between societal values and technological innovation in the late 20th century. As Glendinning writes, \u201cLike the early Luddites, we too are a desperate people seeking to protect the livelihoods, communities, and families we love, which lie on the verge of destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one hand, entrepreneurs and others who advocate for a more measured approach to technology innovation lest we stumble into avoidable \u2013 and potentially catastrophic risks \u2013 are frequently labeled \u201cNeo-Luddites.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These individuals represent experts who believe in the power of technology to positively change the future, but are also aware of the societal, environmental and economic dangers of blinkered innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there are the Neo-Luddites who actively reject modern technologies, fearing that they are damaging to society. New York City\u2019s Luddite Club<\/a> falls into this camp. Formed by a group of tech-disillusioned Gen-Zers, the club advocates the use of flip phones, crafting, hanging out in parks and reading hardcover or paperback books. Screens are an anathema to the group, which sees them as a drain on mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure how many of today\u2019s Neo-Luddites \u2013 whether they\u2019re thoughtful technologists, technology-rejecting teens or simply people who are uneasy about technological disruption \u2013 have read Glendinning\u2019s manifesto. And to be sure, parts of it are rather contentious. Yet there is a common thread here: the idea that technology can lead to personal and societal harm if it is not developed responsibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And maybe that approach isn\u2019t such a bad thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Maynard<\/a>, Professor of Advanced Technology Transitions, Arizona State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Maynard, Arizona State University The term \u201cLuddite\u201d emerged in early 1800s England. At the time there was a thriving textile industry that depended on manual knitting frames and a skilled workforce to create cloth and garments out of cotton and wool. But as the Industrial Revolution gathered momentum, steam-powered mills threatened the livelihood of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":33827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3410,8],"tags":[5798,10656,2193,6674,3066,1668,149,14026,14027,2197,10135,487,14028,4424,255,3134],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33826"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33828,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33826\/revisions\/33828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}