A neo-Luddie writing exercise

Alright I'm make this thread to spitball ideas for two types of factions inspired by the Luddies. For context (AFIAK), they were a group of disgruntled laborers that saw the potential of automation to shut humanity out of jobs and in a capitalistic society, the means to survive. They are however demonized into techno primitvists and people bigoted towards mechanical lifeforms. That is to say the Evil Luddite. For further context they are intended to be part of a setting that si part Cyberpunk and part Space Opera

The idea is a faction that despite what the stereotype implies, is actually neutral if not friendly towards robots and cyborgs, and are focused more on safeguarding people's ability to survive in a capitalistic universe, as well as their free will. A faction that considers the Job-Stealing Robot to be one that is insentient, not robots in general. They are contrasted by a splinter cell closer to the Evil Luddite archetype, as well as the Mega Corps trying to enslave the minds of their laborers in the name of exploiting loopholes and efficiency.

I want to ask about the apparent paradoxes in their ideology and philosophy, as well as how they would be able to tell betwixt sentient AI and insentient AI and if there are any edge cases that might trip them up.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Oct 9th 2022 at 9:46:34 AM

I doubt that one could tell the difference between sentient and non-sentient AI—not unless the non-sentient version were significantly less capable than the sentient version.

Could you elaborate here, please? What are the apparent paradoxes in question?

(Unless you mean the bit about their being okay with robots and cyborgs. In that case they might make a point of demanding work for people—not "humans"—of all kinds, natural or artificial.)

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Oct 9th 2022 at 9:15:18 PM

Freefall is in the middle of an arc similar to what it sounds like you're thinking of. The primary conflict is between space station management, who are deliberately not paying for maintenance to encourage the human staff to leave in order to replace them with cheaper robotic labour; the labour union, who won't allow robots on the station unless they're paid as much as the human workforce is; and the robots, who are naively Three Laws-Compliant and more than willing to let themselves be exploited if it means getting humans out of dangerous working conditions.

The thing is that the setup feels kind of confusing, like it's good luddites versus bad luddites and like .. ok?

luddites in particular were keenly aware of the benefits of automation and also keenly aware that this would simply destroy people's livelyhoods. Which it did! automation was very, very, very bad for the working class. It took almost a century for workers to get basically any rights. It was dangerous, exploitative work and the capital class simply did not care about workers. It destroyed wages leading to child labour, and the massive imbalance of power led to enormous exploitation.

In historical terms, the luddites were 100% correct.

The stereotype luddites are just... amish, but they're not actual luddites.