Oddbean

Then, as now, there was no way to progress as a worker: no matter how skilled and diligent an Uber driver is, they can't buy their medallion and truly become their own boss, getting a say in their working conditions. They certainly can't hope to rise from a blue-collar job on the streets to a white-collar job in the Uber offices. 35/

Then, as now, a worker was hired by the day, not by the year, and might find themselves with no work the next day, depending on the whim of a factory owner or an algorithm. As Merchant writes: robots aren't coming for your job; *bosses* are. The dream of a "dark factory," a "fully automated" Tesla production line, is the dream of a boss who doesn't have to answer to workers, who can press a button and manifest their will, without negotiating with mere workers. 36/

The point isn't just to reduce the wage-bill for a finished good - it's to reduce the "friction" of having to care about others and take their needs into account. Luddites are not - and have never been - anti-technology. Rather, they are pro-human, and see production as a means to an end: broadly shared prosperity. The automation project says it's about replacing humans with machines, but over and over again - in machine learning, 37/

in "contactless" delivery, in on-demand workforces - the goal is to turn humans *into* machines. There is blood in the machine, Merchant tells us, whether its humans being torn apart *by* a machine, or humans being transformed into machines. Brian and I are having a joint book-launch tomorrow night (Sept 27) at #ChevaliersBooks in #LosAngeles for my new book *The Internet Con* and his new book, *Blood in the Machine*: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-internet-con-by-cory-doctorow-blood-in-the-machine-by-brian-merchant-tickets-696349940417 eof/

@b92dcc07 Thank you for this. It’s good to bang the drum that Luddites were never anti technology only pro autonomy. We know they were actually early adopters of new tech. I appreciate the way in which you tie it in with current big tech invading our lives.