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patlo 's review for:
Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech
by Brian Merchant
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
This is a DEEEEP dive into the history of the Luddite movement, and it does a great job of resetting our misconceptions about what that actually means (HINT: It's not "fear of technology", it's "concern that technology is used to enrich the owner class at the expense of the working class").
LOTS of facts, details, story, names. LOTS. I skimmed quite a bit. It's a good setup, and the later sections that investigate the themes of the Luddites/Ludd/Luddism in modern technology context of gig work and LLM/AI, that was really good. Repetitive at times, but good.
It's a worthwhile read, but you may need to assemble your own impacts from all the data presented.
LOTS of facts, details, story, names. LOTS. I skimmed quite a bit. It's a good setup, and the later sections that investigate the themes of the Luddites/Ludd/Luddism in modern technology context of gig work and LLM/AI, that was really good. Repetitive at times, but good.
It's a worthwhile read, but you may need to assemble your own impacts from all the data presented.