Blood in the Machine
The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"The most important book to read about the AI boom" (Wired): The "gripping" (New Yorker) true story of the first time machines came for human jobs—and how the Luddite uprising explains the power, threat, and toll of big tech and AI today
Named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker, Wired, and the Financial Times • A Next Big Idea Book Club "Must-Read"
The most urgent story in modern tech begins not in Silicon Valley but two hundred years ago in rural England, when workers known as the Luddites rose up rather than starve at the hands of factory owners who were using automated machines to erase their livelihoods.
The Luddites organized guerrilla raids to smash those machines—on punishment of death—and won the support of Lord Byron, enraged the Prince Regent, and inspired the birth of science fiction. This all-but-forgotten class struggle brought nineteenth-century England to its knees.
Today, technology imperils millions of jobs, robots are crowding factory floors, and artificial intelligence will soon pervade every aspect of our economy. How will this change the way we live? And what can we do about it?
The answers lie in Blood in the Machine. Brian Merchant intertwines a lucid examination of our current age with the story of the Luddites, showing how automation changed our world—and is shaping our future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Merchant (The One Device) offers a stirring account of the Luddites' "messy rebellion" against new technological innovations in early-19th-century England. Merchant traces the narrative arcs of several groups, including the Luddites, skilled workers in the cloth industry whose lives were irreversibly overhauled by the arrival of new machinery (such as water-powered yarn-spinning machines and looms); the prominent cultural and literary figures, such as Lord Byron, who took an active interest in their grievances; and the factory owners who lived in fear of their nighttime attacks. The portrayal is one deeply sympathetic to the Luddite cause; Merchant is keen to deconstruct the modern, negative connotations of the term "Luddite," emphasizing that they were driven to act not by some blinding, stubborn hatred of technology, as is often assumed, but rather by a deep understanding of its potential pitfalls and a distaste for the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a small number of privileged overseers. Merchant draws astute comparisons to technology's disruptions of jobs and livelihoods in the 21st century, using the rise of Uber and AI as prominent examples. This is a significant contribution to the history of the Industrial Revolution and a strong warning against complacency in the face of technological change.
