The Future Encyclopedia of Luddism

Document Type

Short Story

Publication Title

The MIT Press Reader

Publication Date

2021

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.

What you are about to read is an alternate history (an encyclopedia entry from 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.

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Available at: https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-future-encyclopedia-of-luddism/

Adapted from the anthology entitled Economic Science Fictions (Goldsmiths Press) published 2019 and available at: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9781912685073/?_ga=2.95463644.1981076129.1684180967-1176753050.1684180967

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