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zemvpferreira | 21 days ago

In that case I really don't understand how you conclude there's any difference between being on the bottom or the top of the tool. The bare reality is the same: Skilled labourers will be replaced by automation. Woodworking tools (and looms) replaced skilled labourers with less-skilled replacements (such as children), and AI will absolutely replace skilled labourers with less-skilled replacements as well. I ask sincerely, I truly don't understand how this isn't a distinction without a difference. Have you spent time inside a modern furniture factory? Have you seen how few people it takes to make tens of tons of product?

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agentultra|21 days ago

I haven’t worked in a furniture factory but I have assembled car seats in a factory for Toyota.

The difference matters because the people who worked together to smash the looms created the myth of Ned Ludd to protect their identities from persecution. They used organized violence because they had no leverage otherwise to demand fair wages, safety guarantees, and other labour protections. What they were fighting for wasn’t the abolishment of automation and looms. It was for social reforms that would have given them labour protections.

It matters today because AI isn’t a profit line on any balance sheet right now but it is being used to justify mass layoffs and to reduce the leverage of knowledge workers in the marketplace. These tools steal your work without compensation and replace your job with capital so that rent seekers can seek rent.

It’s not a repeat of what happened in the Luddite protests but history is rhyming.

zemvpferreira|21 days ago

We agree, which makes me question your original point with the power tool somehow being different even more. Every automation gives more leverage to capital over labour. That's the history of technology. Downstream it makes this great life with indoor plumbing etc possible but automation in any form will always erode skilled labourers as a class. It's all essentially the same in that regard.

cookiengineer|21 days ago

I never knew about the Luddites movement. Do you have some links/books you would recommend to read if you wanna know more about the topic?

As you said, most things seem to be re-written by history, so it seems to be hard to find good sources on this. Thought I might ask.