Name: Industrial Society and Its Future
ISBN: 9781585059669

Industrial Society and Its Future

In 1971 Dr. Theodore Kaczynski rejected modern society and moved to a primitive cabin in the woods of Montana. There, he began building bombs, which he sent to professors and executives to express his disdain for modern society, and to work on his magnum opus, Industrial Society and Its Future, forever known to the world as the Unabomber Manifesto. Responsible for three deaths and more than twenty casualties over two decades, he was finally identifed and apprehended when his brother recognized his writing style while reading the 'Unabomber Manifesto.' The piece, written under the pseudonym FC (Freedom Club) was published in the New York Times after his promise to cease the bombing if a major publication printed it in its entirety.

What Hacker News says

mgratJan 2026

If I have any hope for the future of America it is that the upcoming generation finds 'Industrial Society and its Future', and instead of becoming radicalized, simply turns its back on tech fetishization.

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fidotronJan 2025

The defining work on this subject is “Industrial Society and its Future” by Ted Kaczynski. Where he says “leftism” say “woke” and you have it.

This always needs to be followed by a condemnation of his violent methods, but that has been used as a way to avoid dealing with his horribly on point diagnosis of the problem.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_F...

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freedombenMay 2024

It really is a shame that he ended up getting violent, because "Industrial Society and Its Future" is one of the most interesting, insightful, and fascinating things I've read. I recommend it to everyone.

IMHO it's a classic example where "the author is excellent at identifying problems, not good at identifying solutions." Unfortunately almost nobody reads the first (identification) part because the solution part is so unpalatable and unacceptable. For anyone who doesn't know, Ted Kaczynski was the Unabomber and his solution to the problem of technology was basically to destroy the entire system by wiping it out in a way that leaves no ability for humans to resume technological progress, and violence was his way of beginning the societal destruction part. From a purely theoretical/philosophical view it makes logical sense, but for most people who have a sense of compassion and empathy the costs are extremely unpalatable.

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oldsklgdfthMay 2024

I have two that I keep coming back to and function as the ying and yang in my mental model.

* Industrial Society and Its Future by Ted Kaczynski. The first half I reread often because it is a short critique of technology/technique and the effect that it has on our life. Though not original, it touches on this feeling that we are enslaved to our tools. It also reminds me that "no, i'm not crazy" this world is totally absurd and the way we live makes no sense. Obviously, if you take this philosophy to its natural extreme you need to go live in the woods and suffer. Which is kind of larping.

* This is Water by David Foster Wallace. I reread this and hand out copies of this book to people all the time. For me it speaks to the part of me that knows that it is important to choose wisely what you focus your thoughts on, because if I don't the automatic monologue in my head will take over. It will start with complaining. It will continue with painting everything black. It will make me misrable and incapable of enjoying the beauty in life.

I am trying to break out of these two book being so influential because I feel like to grow I need to evolve a new understanding and have new ideas to toy with.

Anyone have recommendation?

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Aerbil313Dec 2023

And here I am just watching Kaczynski’s predictions all the way back at 1970 become truer with the decade. Technology clashes with human autonomy.

It’s even argued that the path of technological progress would not change even if you there were aliens, AI bots, any entity with the instinct of self-preservation, intelligence and replication. The mechanisms of the macro-system comprised of human biology + technology are explained in his book Anti-Tech Revolution in great detail.

It was a hard and bitter conclusion to come as a software dev, but I can never again unsee the fact that all technology is inherently evil. For a shorter but enlightening read, see his original manifesto “Industrial Society And Its Future”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unab...

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Aerbil313Oct 2023

Not acknowledging that the current predicament is caused by every single human being except maybe native tribes in remote islands is blindness. Saying that the vast majority (%99.9) of human beings is responsible and to be blamed for it is not victim-blaming, but not right either. The thing to blame is our beloved technology. Technology is the main force which shapes human society. We do things and don't do things because of our technology. It defines societies and the entire human civilization. The only choice there was was to oppose all technological progress, but that ship has sailed long ago, in 15th century or so. Back then, few people understood what technological progress will inevitably bring, no one had a time machine to see 21th and 22th centuries. We tout these people as religious backward luddites today, though the sentiment is changing.

The whole situation is as deterministic as two celestal bodies moving according to Newtonian physics. Technological progress was inevitable, and so was the resulting population bomb in the last century, and so is the nearing Collapse of the civilization in the coming decades, due to ecological overshoot. Read the Industrial Society and Its Future by Ted Kaczynski.

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