#neoluddism — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #neoluddism, aggregated by home.social.
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Critical thinking has left the building. Is everyone in the U.S. going mad? It seems to me, judging by this whole hysteria anti-AI and pro-AI. I'm just tired of it. Just use the tools that you think work best for you but just don't be judgemental. Human output is also full of slop. Just because it was created by a human being, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be reviewed in the sense of improving it. The exact same thing is valid for any AI output!! Just don't use lame excuses to justify a reactionary and conservative position towards technology. Being anti-AI is not progressive nor emancipatory if you just avoid all the time getting your feet wet by using the tools and experimenting a lot. It just shows you lack the exact same critical thinking you accuse pro-AI people of lacking.
"Having heard an increasing number of anecdotal stories over the last year or so of people finding weird, wild and defiant ways to avoid using AI in their professional lives, tales I've seen told in fragments across social media and platforms like Linkedin, I decided to speak directly with as many workers as I could to hear their stories in full.
What I found particularly interesting was that while some employees are able to duck out from using the technology altogether, a surprising number of people without that luxury are still finding ways to minimise, misdirect or even sabotage their company's AI mandates by using the technology against itself.
Given everyone I spoke to was still employed at the place they're talking about, they've requested their names and employers be withheld. And while (since this is a video games website) there are some video game industry workers featured below, I also ended up speaking with many affected employees across a range of other industries, from utilities to finance to cloud hosting."
https://aftermath.site/ai-resistance-tips-workforce-llm-workers/
#AI #GenerativeAI #LLMs #Automation #Productivity #Neoluddites #ReactionaryThought #Conservatism #Neoluddism
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The Luddite Club, The Documentary:
A film teacher and her high school student take stock of a post-COVID landscape, where tech-addled teens are experiencing a public mental health crisis and New York City is suing Meta for fueling the flames. Amid the chaos are The New York Times-profiled Luddites, teens who are rejecting smartphones and social media in order to rediscover the value of IRL connections.
https://www.ludditeclubdoc.com #Luddite #neoLuddism -
As AI gets more life-like, a new #Luddite movement is taking root https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/08/business/ai-luddite-movement-screens
#neoLuddism -
"Around the world, governments are going hard to present themselves as AI leaders willing to do whatever the industry wants to attract investment.
Last month, I spoke to Will Dunn on Tech Won’t Save Us about how this is playing out in the UK, where the government has gone so far as to use chatbots to drafts laws. France has gone all in too, presenting itself as the third pole of AI leadership between the United States and China. Now, my own country is making its bid to join the fray.
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney rolled out his government’s AI strategy earlier this month, annoyingly titled “AI for All.” But in it, I saw something novel: not just the aggressive pursuit of AI dollars by giving industry what it wants, but also reframing opposition to AI and hyperscale data centers as the product of a lack of AI “literacy.” If only the Canadian public was taught to use AI tools, the strategy suggests, they’ll come around to backing them.
As you won’t be surprised to hear, I think that’s a poor judgement that misunderstands why people have turned against AI so aggressively. I wrote up my thoughts recently for The Tyee, a fantastic progressive publication based in British Columbia. They’ve been kind enough to let me share them with Disconnect subscribers."
https://disconnect.blog/ai-opposition-isnt-the-product-of-a-lack-of-literacy/
#Canada #AI #GenerativeAI #BigTech #AntiAI #Neoluddism #Neoluddites
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RE: https://tante.cc/2026/04/21/ai-as-a-fascist-artifact/
A powerful essay, regardless of how you personally might feel about the #AI, #techfascism or #neoLuddism.
I have multiple points to debate there, but that is exactly what qualifies it as a good read in my book.
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"AI models have one undeniable virtue: the increase in speed and efficiency with which they can carry out tasks that were once the province of human beings. Language models can produce functional text for a wide range of contexts, while image generation models are giving us the capability to render into existence whatever image or video takes our fancy. This is widely taken as clear evidence of the benefits of AI. For Mumford, this type of thinking is precisely the problem. The myth of the machine is dehumanizing because it subordinates human values to machine values: speed and efficiency.
The most striking evidence of the myth’s cultural pervasiveness is that many avid accelerationists do not deny that AI could mean the end of humanity. They merely differ from the doomers in believing that this risk is necessary—even desirable—to achieve the spectacular increases in efficiency and productivity promised by AGI. Mumford foresaw this extreme endpoint. “The myth of the machine,” he wrote, “the basic religion of our present culture, has so captured the modern mind that no human sacrifice seems too great provided it is offered up to the insolent Marduks and Molochs of science and technology.”
Those branded as skeptics or doomers also still accept the premises of the myth of the machine. The stated aim of many organizations concerned with avoiding the worst AI outcomes is that we should “realize the benefits while mitigating the risks” of the technology. Mumford would argue the first half of this statement concedes too much, accepting the basic premise of the myth of the machine while presenting the task as removing the obstacles to realize its benefits. Many skeptics also share a basic misanthropic premise of machine superiority, focusing as they do on the biased, irrational, and flawed nature of human beings that needs machinic augmentation."
https://www.compactmag.com/article/ai-and-the-myth-of-the-machine/
#AI #Neoluddism #AIBoosters #AIHype #AIDoomers #GenerativeAI #Mumford #STS #MediaEcology
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Looks interesting. A week-long session in Latvia.
Circle 9: Degrowth and Exnovation – NORDIC SUMMER UNIVERSITY
https://www.nsuweb.org/circle-9-degrowth-and-exnovation/ -
Has anyone noticed that image captchas will often accept incorrect answers? I've been trying to do my bit for the Resistance by just clicking randomly on them until I get bored, whereas previously I used to sweat about whether the one pixel of traffic light in a particular square was counted or not. I guess the algorithm decides a right answer is one that falls within a certain standard deviation from the mean results.
TL;DR you can be super sloppy with those annoying bois.
#ShowerThoughts #MyHobby #neoLuddism -
RE: https://toot.community/@yvanspijk/116115090523828826
Acrobat reader offered an "AI summary" of an etymological dictionary. It made it crash.
Ah, that gives me ideas 😉
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"More than two-thirds of residents agreed in a 2024 poll that the tech companies have partially or completely misplaced their moral compass. And that was before so many in tech embraced the Trump administration.
Some of those who believe tech lost its way are finding explanations in a book published a quarter century ago.
Paulina Borsook’s “Cyberselfish” saw the seeds of disaster in the late-1990s dot-com boom, which, she argued, transformed a community that was previously sober, civic-minded and egalitarian into something toxic.
Silicon Valley, Ms. Borsook wrote, hated governments, rules and regulations. It believed if you were rich, you were smart. It thought people could be, and indeed should be, programmed just like a computer. “Techno-libertarianism,” as she labeled it, had no time for the messy realities of being human.
At the time, Silicon Valley was just a bunch of young people boasting and hyping. But Ms. Borsook predicted that when the tech world had amassed sufficient money and power, it would start imposing its beliefs on everyone outside the valley.
“If empathy has now become a distasteful personal failing; if surveillance capitalism has become the default shrugged-off business practice; if the environmental impacts of A.I. are waved away: then we are alas living in the tech-driven culture I saw headed our way 30 years ago,” Ms. Borsook said in an interview. “It’s terrible that I was right.”"
#SiliconValley #TechnoLibertarianism #CalifornianIdeology #Neoluddism
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"Just because AI could replace humans doesn’t mean it will. Few of the companies announcing layoffs actually cite AI as the reason. Relative to the investments of AI companies, actual corporate adoption has been modest, feeding suspicions of a bubble.
So does it matter that people don’t love AI? It might. Nuclear power once offered the sort of potential that AI promises today. But the public never got comfortable with a technology that could also wipe out humanity, especially after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. From 1978 to 1990, polls showed overwhelming opposition to new reactors, and deployment ground to halt. Only now is it coming back to life—ironically, to power AI.
Today, AI has the political wind at its back. One of President Trump’s first acts was to rescind former President Joe Biden’s AI safety guidelines. He now gives priority to dismantling regulatory barriers to AI and competing with China.
But those winds can shift. A poll of roughly 2,000 people by Narrative Strategies, a communications and public relations firm, found just 40% said the AI industry could be “trusted to do the right thing,” well below the 62% to 63% who said that about finance, energy or healthcare. Asked about government regulation, 57% said tech and AI needed more, well above other industries.
AI evangelists believe its sheer economic and computational force make it unstoppable. They better hope so, because it certainly isn’t going to succeed on its popularity."
#AI #GenerativeAI #BigTech #SiliconValley #USA #NeoLuddism #MassUnemployment
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Echoes of #Plato: #NeoLuddism — reclaiming the human in the digital age
Making room for humanity in the march of technology
“The machines were their enemies, for the machines were the means by which greedy masters enforced their will.” — – E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (1963)
by Kem-Laurin Lubin, Jan 4, 2025
"Modern neo-Luddism draws inspiration from this historical movement, but rather than opposing all forms of #technology, it critiques the #uncritical adoption of digital tools and automation. Neo-Luddites are not anti-technology per se; instead, they advocate for a more #mindful and selective use of technology, prioritizing human #WellBeing, #EnvironmentalSustainability, and meaningful #SocialInteractions.
"In today’s context, neo-Luddism is less about destroying machines and more about reclaiming control over how technology shapes daily life. It questions the pervasive influence of #smartphones, #SocialMedia, and constant #connectivity, encouraging moments of #disconnection to foster deeper, more authentic human experiences.
"This philosophy underpins the growing trend of 'no-tech meetups,' where individuals come together to temporarily step away from digital distractions and reconnect in more organic, face-to-face ways [Like listening to vinyl records with a friend!]. Neo-Luddites advocate for a conscious retreat from digital dependence, emphasizing the importance of face-to-face communication and preserving human connection without the interference of screens. These gatherings, often called '#LudditeClubs' or 'analog meetups,' create spaces where participants can engage in conversations, activities, and communal experiences free from the distractions of smartphones, social media, and other digital tools.
"The motivations behind this movement are diverse. Some individuals express concerns over privacy and the pervasive #surveillance associated with digital platforms. Some lament the growing loss of #jobs and community. Others seek to combat the social isolation and mental health challenges exacerbated by excessive screen time. #Environmental considerations also play a role, with participants mindful of the ecological impact of #ElectronicWaste and the resource demands of constant technological upgrades."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/6tQNO#Philosophy #RightToRepair #EWaste #PlannedObsolescence #LudditeClub #NeoLuddite #UseYourBrain #DigitalAge #ReadABook #SmartphoneAddiction #TechAddiction #MentalHealth #BrainHealth #DatacentersUseTooMuchElectricity
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you have to go into lockdown mode and 2FA everything
and if it isn't 2FA, consider it forfeit
make your online footprint as circumspect as possible
and beyond *that*, vile evil like #palantir is already siphoning it all up from the backend with #capitalist entities with no care that happily sell out your #privacy for a few bucks, putting it into #AI, and profiling you
i am not a luddite, but boy oh boy does #luddism sound more and more tempting with each day
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"Digital technology may be harnessed by forces on the political right, but there is nothing inherently right-wing about digital technologies, right? Right?!?!?
Wrong.
At least, that is the response given by David Golumbia in his vital and provocative book Cyberlibertairnism: The Right-Wing Politics of Digital Technology. It is a book in which Golumbia argues that the core politics coded into digital technologies are overwhelmingly right-wing, and in which he further argues that—knowingly or not—by defending and idealizing digital technologies many left-leaning groups and individuals have wound up disseminating and entrenching the very right-wing politics they oppose. In Golumbia’s estimation, and argumentation, the issue is not only that the way we talk about digital technologies tends to advance right-wing politics, but that these technologies themselves continually advance right-wing politics, with this advancement often occurring under a veneer of appeals to freedom and liberation.
In contrast to the numerous works by left-wing, and left-leaning, academics and activists arguing that the liberatory potential of digital technologies has been warped by right-wing billionaires and by business interests, Golumbia’s Cyberlitertarianism argues that the problem is not only with the billionaires or the business interests but with the technology itself. At the core of Cyberlibertianism is the argument that not only is digital technology not neutral, but that by this point we are fooling ourselves by refusing to admit what its politics actually are."
#Cyberlibertarianism #Neoluddism #DigitalTechnology #Neoluddites
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"In her own field, she is concerned about the number of books that are being “read” by machines. Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook provider, has just announced it will allow publishers to create audiobooks using its AI technology. “I don’t know anybody who wants a robot to read them a story, but I am concerned that it is going to ruin the experience to the point where people don’t want to subscribe to audiobook platforms any more,” says Doty. She hasn’t lost jobs to AI yet but other colleagues have, and chances are, it will happen. AI models can’t “narrate”, she says. “Narrators don’t just read words; they sense and express the feelings beneath the words. AI can never do this job because it requires decades of experience in being a human being.”
Emily M Bender, professor of linguistics at the University of Washington and co-author of a new book, The AI Con, has many reasons why she doesn’t want to use large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT. “But maybe the first one is that I’m not interested in reading something that nobody wrote,” she says. “I read because I want to understand how somebody sees something, and there’s no ‘somebody’ inside the synthetic text-extruding machines.” It’s just a papier-mache made from lots of different people’s words, she says.
Does she feel she is being “left behind”, as AI enthusiasts would say? “No, not at all. My reaction to that is, ‘Where’s everybody going?’” She laughs as if to say: nowhere good."
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/03/creatives-academics-rejecting-ai-at-home-work
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"The challenge, then, isn’t just understanding where A.I. is headed—it’s shaping its direction before the choices narrow. As an example of A.I.’s potential to play a socially productive role, Autor pointed to health care, now the largest employment sector in the U.S. If nurse practitioners were supported by well-designed A.I. systems, he said, they could take on a broader range of diagnostic and treatment responsibilities, easing the country’s shortage of M.D.s and lowering health-care costs. Similar opportunities exist in other fields, such as education and law, he argued. “The problem in the economy right now is that much of the most valuable work involves expert decision-making, monopolized by highly educated professionals who aren’t necessarily becoming more productive,” he said. “The result is that everyone pays a lot for education, health care, legal services, and design work. That’s fine for those of us providing these services—we pay high prices, but we also earn high wages. But many people only consume these services. They’re on the losing end.”
If A.I. were designed to augment human expertise rather than replace it, it could promote broader economic gains and reduce inequality by providing opportunities for middle-skill work, Autor said. His great concern, however, is that A.I. is not being developed with this goal in mind. Instead of designing systems that empower human workers in real-world environments—such as urgent-care centers—A.I. developers focus on optimizing performance against narrowly defined data sets."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/21/how-to-survive-the-ai-revolution
#AI #GenerativeAI #Automation #Productivity #Luddites #Neoluddism #Unemployment
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@alexch
I can recommend the small book from Garvin Mueller. https://gavinmueller.com/Breaking Things at Work – The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job. 2021
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622870/breaking-things-at-work-by-gavin-mueller/
In German, its publish under a other titel "Maschinenstürmer – Autonomie und Sabotage"
https://edition-nautilus.de/programm/maschinenstuermer/
#luddism #luddismus #neoluddism #works #marxism #workingsociety #history and present
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#Neoluddism #Neoluddites #AI #GenerativeAI: "Edward Ongweso Jr, a writer and broadcaster, and Molly Crabapple, an artist, both based in New York, define themselves as luddites in this way, too. Ongweso talks to me on the phone while he runs errands around town. We first made contact over social media. We set a date via email. Now we let Google Meet handle the mechanics of a seamless transatlantic call. Neo-luddism isn’t about forgoing such innovations, Ongweso explains. Instead, it asks that each new innovation be considered for its merit, its social fairness and its potential for hidden malignity. “To me, luddism is about this idea that just because a technology exists, doesn’t mean it gets to sit around unquestioned. Just because we’ve rolled out some tech doesn’t mean we’ve rolled out some advancement. We should be continually sceptical, especially when technology is being applied in work spaces and elsewhere to order social life.”
Crabapple, the artist luddite, broadly agrees. “For me, a luddite is someone who looks at technology critically and rejects aspects of it that are meant to disempower, deskill or impoverish them. Technology is not something that’s introduced by some god in heaven who has our best interests at heart. Technological development is shaped by money, it’s shaped by power, and it’s generally targeted towards the interests of those in power as opposed to the interests of those without it. That stereotypical definition of a luddite as some stupid worker who smashes machines because they’re dumb? That was concocted by bosses.”"
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#Luddites #Neoluddism #BigTech: "Blood in the Machine provides an engaging, entertaining, and at times enraging (in a good way) account of the Luddites. It is a book that develops a rich historical picture of the original Luddites, and that presents them in a complex and contextualized way. While no one book or author will likely ever be able to completely correct the way that Luddite is still used as an epithet (alas), it is impossible to come away from Merchant’s book thinking that the Luddites were just a gaggle of ignorant anti-technology fools. Beyond the historic Luddites, Merchant continually draws out connections between the historic Luddites and contemporary dissatisfaction with, and pushback against, “Big Tech.” Blood in the Machine is a lengthy book, and the vast majority of the book is devoted to a detailed account of the historic Luddites. And yet, in the end, Blood in the Machine is not really a book about the Luddites; rather it is a book about Luddism, and an attempt to articulate an idea of what contemporary Luddism means. This is something which becomes evident every time Merchant interrupts his historical narrative to emphasize the parallels he is explicitly drawing out between the Luddites and (for example) union organizers at Amazon. On the surface this is a book about who the Luddites were, but at its core this is a book much more interested in what the Luddites mean. Which is ultimately what makes this book worth reading and deserving of critical engagement."
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Conflicted... it _is_ web advertising, after all, but also fuck AI so hard.
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@imtheq But that’s one of the foundations of neo-luddism: To realise that the narrative of them being opposed to technology itself is only the lying propaganda that was written by the capitalists, and that the real story is much more nuanced.
Luddism sparked the first unions and worker movements. It was a fight against how the machines were used to literally kill thousands of workers, not against the machines themselves.
Most workers were positive to technology making their lives easier — but when the choice of improved worker lives was weighed against increased profits, the capitalists chose the latter. The consequences were horrific and fatal for thousands.
The Nib has a TL;DR in comic form that I warmly recommend:
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#Luddism #Neoluddism #BigTech: "Maybe instead of focusing on the tech, I’ll focus on the incentives that drive its production and deployment currently. These are too often efficiency at the expense of worker well-being, cost savings at the expense of safety and integrity, and the illusion of computational sophistication at the expense of meaningful accountability — or automation as a liability shield. This is compounded by the extraordinary concentration of power in the tech industry. By and large these imperatives are shaping what tech gets built, the stories told about it, and the growing chasm between those with the power to make and use it and those on whom it’s used, and who suffer the blunt force of its harms."
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@juergen_hubert @ShaulaEvans …absurd extremes. Such horrible, initial user experiences 🤯
Anecdotes by testers: Spent more time reviewing output, retrying prompts, etc. than if they'd have done the tasks unassisted.
Maybe such results indicate techies' silent, ground-level revenge against C-suites & boards pushing #GenAI? Those seem to mostly #FOMO the #GartnerHypeCycle like headless chickens.
#QuietQuitting #Luddism #NeoLuddism #ChatGPT #enshittification #e14n #stochasticParrots
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@tess @kornel Little enforces my identification as a neo-Luddite more than the wild ramblings of techno-fascist billionaires like Marc Andreesen.
https://thenib.com/im-a-luddite/
#Luddite #NeoLuddite #NeoLuddism #TechnoFascist #Fascist #Fascism #Manifest #Manifesto