On Luddites

In his book Blood in the Machine, Brian Merchant describes the original tech titans of the 1800’s – the entrepreneurs who ushered in an age of automation in textile making and the factory system. They envisioned increased production of cheaper yarn and cloth through the use of machinery. However, the implementation of textile factories crowded with machines and run by underpaid, unprotected labourers producing cheap, inferior mass-produced goods also gave rise to the Luddite movement.

The Luddites were a labour movement that opposed the use of machinery as a means to exploit workers. While mostly remembered for smashing machines, this aspect of the Luddite movement was actually the final act of protest against automation after a decade of cloth workers petitioning the British government to uphold legislation meant to protect them while proposing fair and equitable ways of incorporating automation into their livelihood.

Far from being “small minded” and “anti-technology” the Luddites knew their trade, understood technology, and often could see how machines could enhance their work and quality of life. Where machinery was used to improve working conditions and workers were treated fairly, technology was often implemented without any fuss at all. It was only when the efforts by cloth workers to prevent exploitation were rebuffed that the Luddite movement began to swing the hammer – but even then, machine breaking was selective and targeted towards the factory owners who engaged in exploitative practices.

The tech entrepreneurs of today haven’t strayed far from their forebears. There is a lot of underpaid and unprotected labour underpinning the technology we use. The worker in Shenzhen, China who assembles your phone and many others in a 12-hour shift. The content moderator in Nairobi, Kenya who has to see violent and abusive imagery every day to remove it from your social media. The scrap worker in Accra, Ghana sifting through mountains of e-waste being exposed to thousands of chemicals in the process. This labour is invisible to most of us because it is happening far away, out of sight.

Add to that, tech entrepreneurs have an out-sized influence on our political systems right now. We have certainly been witnessing this in the United States, particularly with Elon Musk’s pawkily named Department of Government Efficiency (with the acronym DOGE – referencing a meme turned cryptocurrency) blindly gutting services responsible for the safety and well-being of Americans. Some Canadian tech CEOs have been sympathetic towards this model of upheaval, calling for the aggressive implementation of AI technology into federal government services and explicitly adding a “fast lane” for approving contracts related to AI procurement into Canadian legislation.

Again, profits are being held above the material well-being of people. While tech companies worth billions of dollars sell us on the novelties of generative AI, they eye up the funding for social safety nets because they see that taxpayer money as profits they could be enjoying. There is a joke online that when you task a tech bro to make innovations in transportation, they will inevitably invent the already existing city bus system. Except rather than being run as a public good, it will be in private hands, profit driven, and subject to the whims of the stock market. Given the enshittification of the tech industry we have been seeing, I think it’s important to resist big tech’s political infiltration into the systems that are entrusted with the well-being of society as a whole.

To be very clear, I am not encouraging literal machine breaking like the Luddites did in the 1800’s, or eschewing technology in government business altogether. I think there is an honest conversation to be had about whether our political systems are serving us well and how technology can be used to improve our quality of life. But like the Luddites, we need to question the human costs behind creating and implementing what technology we do use. This means not accepting technology on a “trust me bro” basis from the very companies that created it. It also means understanding the tech entrepreneurs of today are not politically neutral.

So, what can you do? I think it means taking on a bit of a Luddite sensibility when it comes to new technologies that make claims about revolutionizing our world, such as AI. Don’t buy the sales pitch and instead look at everything through the viewpoint of human wellbeing. Vote in elections for those that will invest in social services and support consumer protections. Support more ethical companies by favouring them as a customer; whether you pay or use it for free, it all matters. It also means taking a careful look at the place that technology has in your life. Next time you feel like a bit of a Luddite, take a little pride in that. Because it means more than you think.

Learn more

Digital Luddites are rising. They want to democratise tech, not destroy it. 2025. Raffaele F Ciriello, Rick Sullivan and Vitali Mindel. (The Conversation) Last accessed 2025/04/16.

The Age of AI Luddites: The Rational Fear of Average Quality. 2024. Greg Robison. (Medium) Last accessed 2025/04/16.

What Stephen King — and nearly everyone else — gets wrong about AI and the Luddites. 2023. Brian Merchant. (Los Angeles Times) Last accessed 2025/04/16.

Beyond AI Safety Narratives: How to Craft Tech-Agnostic and Neo-Luddite Futures. 2024. Marlena Wisniak and Matt Mahmoudi. (Just Security) Last accessed 2025/04/16.

Robots sacked, screenings shut down: a new movement of luddites is rising up against AI. 2024. Ed Newton-Rex. (The Guardian) Last accessed 2025/04/16.

Afraid you’ll lose your job to ChatGPT? You’re just the latest person in the last 200 years to become a ‘Luddite.’. 2023. Andrew Maynard. (Fortune) Last accessed 2025/04/16.

Facing disturbing content daily, online moderators in Africa want better protections and a fair wage. 2023. Niza Nondo. (CBC Radio - The Current) Last accessed 2025/04/16.

Life and death in Apple's forbidden city. 2017. Brian Merchant. (The Guardian) Last accessed 2025/04/16.

Stunning photos of a vast e-waste dumping ground - and those who make a living off it. 2024. Jonathan Lambert. (NPR - Goats and Soda) Last accessed 2025/04/16.

Elon Must started aligning with Donald Trump even before he won. Now Canada's tech industry is following a similar playbook. 2025. Paris Marx. (Toronto Star - Opinion) Last accessed 2025/04/16.

The Tech CEOs Who Want a DOGE for Canada. 2025. Jen St. Denis. (The Tyee) Last accessed 2025/04/16.

Make Canadian Government Services AI-First. 2025. Benjamin Alarie. (Build Canada) Last accessed 2025/04/16.

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