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Blood in the Machine

The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech

Brian Merchant

Little, Brown US, 2023

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When you imagine a Luddite, you probably think of someone who foolishly opposes technological progress. But according to bestselling author and tech journalist Brian Merchant, that’s an unfair stereotype created by elites to dismiss employees advocating for their rights. The real Luddites were textile workers who saw their lives and families destroyed by automation and, when business and government refused to protect their rights, they rebelled. Though the Luddite uprising is a historical event, Merchant clearly shows that its power dynamics are deeply relevant in the age of AI and gig work.

Summary

Before industrialization, weavers in Britain enjoyed a healthy work-life balance and 30-hour workweeks.

Before the advent of the mechanical power loom in 1786, many of Britain’s weavers lived with their families in thriving rural communities, running their businesses from the comfort of their homes. In Yorkshire’s West Riding, for example, families worked together and divvied up tasks, such as dying, spinning, and weaving wool, against a picturesque backdrop of rolling green hills. Everyone in the family would contribute to the business. The days could be hard, but economic inequality was rare, and workers enjoyed autonomy, flexible schedules, long weekends, and 30-hour workweeks.

However, by the turn of the 19th century, automation — though no one would use that term until the 1940s — threatened to shatter many British cottage industries. In West Riding, mechanical “shearing frames” and “gig mills” threatened the livelihoods of skilled human cloth-cutters. Once machines partially automated cloth cutting, any unskilled laborer — even a child — could get the job done. In Nottingham...

About the Author

Brian Merchant is the author of the bestselling book The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone and a technology consultant for The Los Angeles Times. He’s also the co-founder of Vice Media’s science fiction outlet, Terraform, and the founder of Gizmodo’s Automaton project, which examines the future of work and AI.

Blood in the Machine

The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech

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Before industrialization, weavers in Britain enjoyed a healthy work-life balance and 30-hour workweeks.

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