Today in Labor History March 11, 1811: Luddites attacked looms near Nottingham, England, because automation was threatening their jobs. At the time, workers were suffering from high unemployment, declining wages, an “endless” war with France and food scarcity. On March 11, they smashed machines in Nottingham and demonstrated for job security and higher wages. The protests and property destruction spread across a 70-mile area of England, reaching Manchester. The government sent troops to protect the factories and made machine-breaking punishable by death.

Fantastic find in my pile of shame, and very timely! The book wants nothing less than turning Marxists into Luddites and vice versa. Not sure about being a Marxist, but I already like Mueller’s approach of reading into Luddism as a compositional class struggle, an “assemblage of enunciations”.

I have some thoughts on AI and Luddites #AI #Luddites

http://scitechkapsar.co/2024/12/28/ai-and-ludditism/

always remember: it's not because capitalism was winning that the system had to smash the luddites. it's precisely the opposite. time to return the 'favour'.
#luddites #luddism #smashTheLooms

It's not my best explanation, but it's not the worst either.

what if the sharks been talking to the orcas and decided to join their #Luddites party and go for what the humans can’t live without these days?

has anybody seen a shark wearing a hand still holding an iPhone as a hat?

https://mastodon.social/@nixCraft/113583927261430658

your regular reminder to smash the looms.
#luddites #bigTech #freePalestine #fuckAI #blackrockUK #blackrock

your regular reminder to smash the looms.
#luddites #bigTech #freePalestine #fuckAI

#AoIR2024 So the #Luddites were actually glorious activists, early trade unionists, who were maligned by the Lords who were in charge of Britain at the time. Don’t buy the classist stories that have been told to you. They got a lot done and didn’t actually hate technology. They fought to regulate technology and support labour rights. Brian Merchant’s book Blood in the Machine is a great history of the Luddites, and his newsletter about AI and labour is good too. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/?lens=little-brown

are there any /good/ people at the top in #tech? seems a pretty ghoulish & rancid state of affairs. i'm beginning to feel a bit 'loom-smashy'.
#luddism #luddites

AI as Algorithmic Thatcherism

"Real AI isn't sci-fi but the precaritisation of jobs, the continued privatisation of everything and the erasure of actual social relations. AI is Thatcherism in computational form. Like Thatcher herself, real world AI boosts bureaucratic cruelty towards the most vulnerable. Case after case, from Australia to the Netherlands, has proven that unleashing machine learning in welfare systems amplifies injustice and the punishment of the poor. AI doesn't provide insights as it's just a giant statistical guessing game. What it does do is amplify thoughtlessness, a lack of care, and a distancing from actual consequences. The logics of ranking and superiority are buried deep in the make up of artificial intelligence; married to populist politics, it becomes another vector for deciding who is disposable."

https://danmcquillan.org/ai_thatcherism.html

is there an existing umbrella term for the following movements?

#smallWeb or #smallTech, indie web, tiny internets, (new?) luddism from (new?) #luddites, #permacomputing, #solarpunk, low-tech, boring tech, computing within limits, disability-driven development, collapse informatics, salvage computing, etc? (send me more movements for the list!!)

thanks to https://damaged.bleu255.com/ — @l03s — for the more obscure terms!

would very much appreciate boosts

Re: https://chaos.social/@joeposaurus/112586675829372436 by @joeposaurus:

I’m audiobooking a book on the #Luddites¹, which caused me to think how passive factory workers in my lifetime were during the Great Offshoring. They didn't smash the looms. Of course, the looms were an ocean away, but still: so passive.²… (1/10)

The furore about children using snart phones in school is the same as ...

The previous furore about children using calculators in mathematics lessons

And is the same as the furore about children using biros when they should be using pen and ink

Embrace the new, learn how to use it best

“We are confronting a series of cases where technology is being used by tech companies and executives in different industries as a means of trying to drive down wages and worsen conditions so that the entrepreneurial class can make more money.”

#CorporateGreed #AI #AIAct #Technology #UnionStrong #Luddites

https://time.com/6317437/luddites-ai-blood-in-the-machine-merchant/