From the latest episode of Techtonic with Mark Hurst I learned that on September 27, a crowd of mostly young neo-Luddites marched in Manhattan, demonstrating outside the Tesla store and the Apple store. Hurst was there to record the event, where he interviewed Logan Lane (yes, as in The Luddite Dispatch). The event sounds like it was fun, creative, and social; imagine a cross between QWERTYFEST and a political march. Here's an interesting report on the event.
I highly recommend listening to the episode. The highlight for me was Lane's report that chapters of the Luddite Club have sprung up in some 25 communities and campuses. Go Luddites!
Interesting. Good to learn about up and coming Luddites.
ReplyDeleteThe link though requires a subscription and I will be searching for the podcast.
Use a manual Typewriter instead of a computer or smartphone...it"s good for you.
Awesome! In this new-Pynchon month we should all be re-reading his 1984 essay, "Is it O.K. To Be A Luddite?" https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-luddite.html?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Chris! I did not know this essay. He hit the nail on the head here: "If our world survives, the next great challenge to watch out for will come—you heard it here first—when the curves of research and development in artificial intelligence, molecular biology and robotics all converge."
DeleteIt seems, by the way, that the Luddites were not indiscriminate vandals, but targeted particular machines that they saw as unfair and dangerous to the working class. Interesting interview here.