You're Probably a Luddite

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I’m sure you’ve heard this word before: Luddite. If you ask Google, it will tell you that a Luddite is, “a person opposed to new technology or ways of working.”

In short, for over 200 years it has been a derogatory term to label someone as irrationally afraid of technology or progress. But where did this term come from?

What is a Luddite?

And what if I told you that this is a text-book case of the victors writing the history?

In a time of technological acceleration such as these, you’re likely to be called a Luddite for having the very reasonable stance of, “hey, maybe tech companies should think about the impacts of the technologies they’re making before they unleash them on the world” or “maybe the AI industry should be regulated” or “maybe technology isn’t neutral, maybe there are technologies that are actually harmful.”

And they would be correct in calling you a Luddite - but not for the reason you think.

Because the victors, AKA the factory owners and titans of industrialism, were so successful with their propaganda, you might be compelled to insist that you’re not anti-progress, anti-technology, that you’re not a Luddite, without knowing what the term Luddite really means.

You might not even be aware that the Luddites were real people and were part of a real movement – a movement fighting for dignity, for self-determination, and freedom.

So in this essay, we’re going to use two incredible books to explore the history of the term Luddite, who the Luddites were, and what they stood for – Rebels Against The Future by Kirkpatrick Sale and Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant. And hopefully, by the end, we’ll help you see how you are probably a Luddite, too.