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I prefer the term "mindful" to luddite. Luddite's opposed technology, you oppose the direction it's headed. But I think you're completely right. We took all th

I prefer the term "mindful" to luddite. Luddite's opposed technology, you oppose the direction it's headed. But I think you're completely right. We took all that made the web unique, and turned it into a black box for abstracting away hardware/OS. It's hardly surprising though... you can decentralize a network, but power and control over the medium was bound to become centralized in some form.

krapp 11y ago
Luddites actually opposed the "direction technology was headed" as well, not technology for its own sake[0]. Specifically, they were the highly skilled technology workers of their time (factory and textile workers) made obsolete by automation, protesting the way technology made it easier to replace them with unskilled, low-wage labor and to flood the market with low-quality, mass produced goods. Sound like a familiar refrain? [0]http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/history/what-the-lu...
- mitchtbaum 11y ago
  Looking at technology's influences alone strikes me as a shallow viewpoint. You can find other important factors if you look a bit deeper: "The British weavers known as Luddites, who destroyed looms precisely 200 years ago, thought rising unemployment within their ranks was due to machinery. But there’s a case to be made that inflation, money supply expansion, budget deficits and trade barriers were equally to blame. ... [The] overall picture was of cheap money leading to labor-saving capital investment, while wages were eroded by inflation and economic activity was dampened by restrictions and excessive government deficits. The Luddites have been mocked for attacking the productivity-enhancing machinery that was to improve living standards unprecedentedly. But given the economic policies of the time, which bear an uncomfortable resemblance to some of our own, the Luddites were right to believe that only higher unemployment, with no discernible improvement in conditions on the horizon, was their fate." http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2011/03/11/were-luddites-the-victims-of-2011-style-finances/ http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2011/03/11/were-luddi... Were Luddites the victims of 2011-style finances? | By Martin Hutchinson | March 11, 2011
- losteric 11y ago
  huh, I never knew that. Thanks! I stand by the rest of what I said though... I think we need to be mindful not just of where society is headed, but what kind of society we will live in when we get there. Technology is important, but it's society that separates utopia from dystopia...

krapp 11y ago

Luddites actually opposed the "direction technology was headed" as well, not technology for its own sake[0]. Specifically, they were the highly skilled technology workers of their time (factory and textile workers) made obsolete by automation, protesting the way technology made it easier to replace them with unskilled, low-wage labor and to flood the market with low-quality, mass produced goods. Sound like a familiar refrain? [0]http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/history/what-the-lu...

mitchtbaum 11y ago
Looking at technology's influences alone strikes me as a shallow viewpoint. You can find other important factors if you look a bit deeper: "The British weavers known as Luddites, who destroyed looms precisely 200 years ago, thought rising unemployment within their ranks was due to machinery. But there’s a case to be made that inflation, money supply expansion, budget deficits and trade barriers were equally to blame. ... [The] overall picture was of cheap money leading to labor-saving capital investment, while wages were eroded by inflation and economic activity was dampened by restrictions and excessive government deficits. The Luddites have been mocked for attacking the productivity-enhancing machinery that was to improve living standards unprecedentedly. But given the economic policies of the time, which bear an uncomfortable resemblance to some of our own, the Luddites were right to believe that only higher unemployment, with no discernible improvement in conditions on the horizon, was their fate." http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2011/03/11/were-luddites-the-victims-of-2011-style-finances/ http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2011/03/11/were-luddi... Were Luddites the victims of 2011-style finances? | By Martin Hutchinson | March 11, 2011
losteric 11y ago
huh, I never knew that. Thanks! I stand by the rest of what I said though... I think we need to be mindful not just of where society is headed, but what kind of society we will live in when we get there. Technology is important, but it's society that separates utopia from dystopia...