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Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech
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About This Book
Longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year The "rich and gripping" 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 (Naomi Klein) 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.
Reviews
"Merchant's book is a counterpunch: the Luddites and gig workers demonstrate how mindless automation might be stopped."
"He brings a journalist's touch to the Luddites' travails, drawing connections between the conflicts and indignities of their epoch and our own ..."
"Tells the story of this rebellion and the eventual government repression that put an end to it."
"Merchant's narrative makes it easy to regard the factory owners as mustache-twirling villains who were enriching themselves off the labor of 7-year-olds ..."
"Merchant ably demonstrates the dire stakes of the Luddites' plight ..."
"Merchant hunts optimistically through the culture for evidence Luddism is on the comeback—and keeps being disappointed."
"This is a significant contribution to the history of the Industrial Revolution and a strong warning against complacency in the face of technological change."
"A well-argued linkage of early industrial and postindustrial struggles for workers' rights."
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