Blood in the Machine
The true story of what happened the first time machines came for human jobs, when an underground network of 19th century rebels, the Luddites, took up arms against the industrialists that were automating their work--and how it explains the power, threat, and toll of big tech today. The most pressing story in modern tech begins not in Silicon Valley, Seattle, or even Shenzhen. It begins two hundred years ago in rural England, when working men and women rose up en masse rather than starve at the hands of the factory owners who were using machines to erase and degrade their livelihoods. They organized guerilla raids, smashed those machines, and embarked on full-scale assaults against the wealthy machine owners. They won the support of Lord Byron, inspired Mary Shelley, and enraged the Prince Regent and his bloodthirsty government. Before it was over, much blood would be spilled--of rich and poor, of the invisible and of the powerful. This all-but-forgotten and deeply misunderstood class struggle nearly brought 19th century England to its knees. We live now in the second machine age, when similar fears that big tech is dominating our lives and machines replacing human labor run high. We worry that technology imperils millions of jobs, robots are ousting workers from factories, and artificial intelligence will soon remove drivers from cars. How will this all reshape our economy and the way we live? And what can we do about it?
Stats for nerds
14recommend
22mentions
21people
2023–2026years
64% recommend36% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- For rethinking the Luddite movement I recommend the book Blood in the Machine (I think I learned about it here on HN)
- > The loom (...) did not cause "captains of industry" to publicly salivate over anticipating being able to fire their knowledge workers who invested time, money, and effort into becoming qualified for the jobs they're now constantly in fear of losing.
It absolutely did. Factory owners used their clout to put workers out of the job and then lobbied for military aid and capital punishment instead of negotiating with the workers. IMO, the only tactic for worker that has EVER had lasting success is solidarity through some form of unionization.
Read "Blood in the Machine" if you want to see what happened to the losers of the industrial revolution. The book does contain some fictional embellishments but that is explained up front, and noted when it comes up.
- > I really enjoyed Merchant’s book and did not enjoy Mueller’s (which I found to be 10% about the Luddites and 90% about interminable intra-Marxist ideological arguments).
I'm just about done with Blood in the Machine, and didn't quite remember the authors name so expected Sean to be critiquing this one as overly Marxist, since it is overwhelmingly sympathetic to the luddites and the working class in general, but apparently not.
In any case, I think it's important that everyone in tech follow Seans example here and gain a historical perspective of the Luddite movement. Whilst the movement won't go the same way, the historical incentives around labour centralization are extremely similar.
I'm currently reading a fascinating book called Blood In The Machine° about the Luddites who opposed certain technologies in 19th century England and the parallels with the current state of affairs. It's important to remember that while history doesn't repeat itself, it often rhymes.> They are being told, on the one hand, that these tools are going to eliminate millions of jobs, and on the other that they have to use them if they don’t want to fall behind.° https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59801798-blood-in-the-ma...
- Brian Merchant's Blood in the Machine is a good overall history of the Luddite movement (though be aware it does not strive to be ideologically neutral).
- I read a book called "Blood in the machine". It's the history of the Luddites.
It really put everything into perspective to where we are now.
Pre-industrial revolution whole towns and families built clothing and had techniques to make quality clothes.
When the machines came out it wasn't overnight but it wiped out nearly all cottage industries.
The clothing it made wasn't to the same level of quality, but you could churn it out faster and cheaper. There was also the novelty of having clothes from a machine which later normalised it.
We are at the beginning of the end of the cottage industry for developers.
