#1612 New Tech and the New Luddite Movement; Inequitable Distribution of Benefits from New Technology Always Sparks Demands from Labor and AI is Rekindling the Old Arguments

Air Date 2/20/2024

"Luddite" should never have become the epithet that it is as the Luddites were never afraid of or opposed to technological advancement, they only opposed the exploitation of workers and the degradation to society that came with the unfair distribution of the benefits of the targeted technology.

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Transcript

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SHOW NOTES

Ch. 1: The New Luddites - SHIFT - Air Date 2-14-24

Activists are fighting back against generative AI and reclaiming a misunderstood label in the process, says Brian Merchant in a new piece for The Atlantic.

Ch. 2: Being a Luddite Is Good, Actually ft. Jathan Sadowski - Left Reckoning - Air Date 5-29-21

Jathan Sadowski (@jathansadowski) of the This Machine Kills (@machinekillspod) podcast repairs our sabotaged understanding of the legacy of the Luddites.

Ch. 3: Why this top AI guru thinks we might be in extinction-level trouble | The InnerView - TRT World - Air Date 1-22-24

Lauded for his groundbreaking work in reverse-engineering OpenAI's large language model, GPT-2, AI expert Connor Leahy tells Imran Garda why he is now sounding the alarm.

 

SEE FULL SHOW NOTES

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FINAL COMMENTS

Ch. 12: Final comments on the fork in the road and a look at our options

References:

Rethinking the Luddites in the Age of A.I.

A Scottish Jewish joke - Things Fall Apart - Air Date 1-25-22

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MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)

SHOW IMAGE: 

Description: An 1812 block print of “The Leader of the Luddites” depicting a man in disheveled early 1800s clothing and missing one shoe leading other men up a hill while a building burns in the background. 

Credit: “The Leader of the Luddites”, Messrs | Working Class Movement Library catalog | Public Domain

 

Produced by Jay! Tomlinson

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