Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech

I picked a good time to read this book. Right now, the tech job market is in a weird place. The layoffs have slowed a bit lately, but we're also in a low-hire environment where those who have been laid off, as well as recent graduates are often having trouble finding work.

Today, much of that is coming from how AI and LLMs are being used to try to supplement workers or replace the need to hire additional staff. Back in the early 1800s, it was similar, but instead of AI, you had power looms and other inventions tied to the industrial revolution that were putting many who worked in the textile business out of work.

Brian Merchant does a fantastic job in this book going through the history of the Luddite Rebellions. He describes the struggles of those facing the toughest of economic times and the lack of support they got from their governments. He also explains so many of the misconceptions of the Luddites. They weren't anti-technology. They were against how the new technology was being used.

The message did not just appeal to weavers and cloth dressers and knitters, which perhaps worried the magistrates and the Home Office most. Artisans, hat-makers, shoemakers, bricklayers, small shop owners, and farmers joined the cause. So did coal miners and railroad workers, whose industries were on the rise due in part to the technology and automation - because the Luddite movement was not about technology; it was about workers' rights. Luddism started as a tactical strike against the technologies of control, but had exploded into a greater expression of the rage against a system where the privileged few with access to the right levers could lift themselves up at the expense of the many.

This book really does make me think about all that is going on today. Between AI, the rise of the gig economy and everything else, capitalism feels broken. During the unrest in England in the early 1800s, while it was only the textile industry dealing with the rise of the machines at the time, other industries saw the writing on the wall and supported the textile workers. We should make sure we do the same for everyone today.