Yet another Hacker News

32 points mooreds 1 hour ago 18 comments

cyanydeez 1 hour ago | parent

Actual luddite: prevent capitalists from using technology to destroy society.

Meme luddite: hate technology

analog8374 52 minutes ago | parent

Amish luddite. Technology is vetted by a central committee before the public is allowed to use it.

Citizen_Lame 26 minutes ago | parent

Cyberpunk Luddite - carries an illegal military-grade EMP grenade strictly for when the smart fridge tries to make small talk.

esafak 3 minutes ago | parent

I was in Amish country last week, watching in bemusement as elderly women zoomed down the street in e-bikes. I thought to myself that it was understandable given that they lived on uneven terrain. But then, I wondered, why did they choose such a place to live if they were not willing to use technology?

lolakutty 51 minutes ago | parent

normie: Loves to walk on technologically advanced crutches when they have perfectly working legs...

wartywhoa23 18 minutes ago | parent

An obligatory Deus Ex cinematic trailer: https://youtu.be/4-MU5MgRV6U

bbg2401 21 minutes ago | parent

Your “actual Luddite” characterisation is just as much a meme.

Both are stupid misrepresentations of the movement.

pessimizer 20 minutes ago | parent

Actual Luddite: your employees who are going through layoffs while your profits are rising.

Luddite according to the boss: somebody who is trying to prevent me from doing what I want to do when I want to do it just because there's 100 of them and one of me.

The boss owns the printing press.

goatlover 46 minutes ago | parent

The term luddite is like the term pharisee. It's a pejorative removed from it's historical context. Actual Luddites and Pharisees would have not agreed that they were against technology or legalistic hypocrites, even though their critics tried to paint them with that brush.

lo_zamoyski 16 minutes ago | parent

> It's a pejorative removed from it's historical context.

It utterly depends on historical context. Intelligent people understand antonomasia and eponymy.

> Actual Luddites and Pharisees would have not agreed that they were against technology or legalistic hypocrites

That's neither here nor there.

bbor 42 minutes ago | parent

All Hail King Ludd!

What do I mean by that? No one knows. But it's provocative -- it gets the comments going!

(despite being a dumb comment, this is my attempt to express the serious point that Luddism is a beautiful, admirable movement, and we are in a position where it can and will be redefined completely to fit this new world; don't let anyone convince you that their Luddism is the only true Luddism, at least not yet!)

RobotToaster 23 minutes ago | parent

Unfortunately I imagine your modern AI data centre has better security than a 19th century textile mill.

frumplestlatz 21 minutes ago | parent

Unfortunately? Are we really at the point of supporting terrorism of the “correct” political persuasion?

miltonlost 16 minutes ago | parent

Are we at the point where we allow companies to just hack other companies and do nothing about it?

howunfortunate 11 minutes ago | parent

We're way past it, sadly. Luigi was insanely popular for the cold blooded murder of a CEO. Hundreds of thousands of people celebrated Charlie Kirk's murder within minutes of it happening, let alone the discourse you see now, a year later. Plenty of people, even on this forum, openly advocate for "the funniest thing" happening to Elon.

Terrorism and murder are in vogue.

runjake 17 minutes ago | parent

In the true sense where you're militarizing and committing acts of sabotage on others' property (so-called "monkeywrenching")? And then, getting suppressed and eradicated/killed by the government?

No.

I prefer the "Calm Technology"[1] approach as espoused by Amber Case[2]. I think this is the saner path forward.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calm_technology

2. https://a.co/d/02kdlV3p

philips 1 minute ago | parent

What are some of your favorite devices that follow this idea? I can list mine:

- Supernote by Ratta https://supernote.com - Air Lab by Networked Artifacts https://networkedartifacts.com - Xteink X4 (or equivalent) https://www.xteink.com

orbital-decay 12 minutes ago | parent

This word has lost any meaning, if anything the current anti-tech wave is far closer to Amish views (subjective vetoing of new tech to avoid centralization and preserve the way of life) than to historical Luddism.