Document Type
Book
Publication Date
2018
Keywords
Luddite, anti-technology, techno-determinism, technological determinism, industrialization, fiction
Abstract
In common parlance, the term “Luddite” means someone who is anti-technology, or maybe, just not adept at using technology. Historically, however, the Luddite movement was a reaction born of industrial accidents and dangerous machines, poor working conditions, and the fact that there were no unions to represent worker interests during England’s initial period of industrialization. The Luddites did not hate technology; they only channeled their anger toward machine-breaking because it had nowhere else to go. The attached book chapter is an alternate history (written circa 2500) that depends on the critical assumption that the Luddites succeeded in their industrial campaign in the 1810s. Instead of techno-determinism (that the development of technology is inevitable, and that society will alter and adjust to it) the Encyclopedia entry notes that the Luddites, in their success, formulated a different, yet productive, relationship between society and the development of technology.
Recommended Citation
Cherry, Miriam A., The Future Encyclopedia of Luddism. in Economic Science Fictions (Ed. William Davies, 2018)., Saint Louis U. Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2018-23.