We human beings process #change at multiple levels, especially the technology-driven changes. There is individual impact to begin with, typically followed by efficiency at a firm level and economic impact at industry level (and even beyond a single industry), and at far end of the spectrum there is the larger social impact. While there are some people who embrace changes quickly, many times out of genuine curiosity or novelty or sometimes even out of no other choice, there are quite a few who oppose its adoption and seem like wanting to preserve the status quo. In many cases, adoption of technology doesn’t come with what meets the eyes. Rather, there are secondary and even tertiary effects of those changes. The study of so-called #luddites in the rapidly being industrialized early nineteenth century England offers a unique and interesting insight into the far-reaching social phenomena associated with what seems be isolated and rather innocuous change. At one time, over 12,000 troops were fighting the luddites — far more than the troops fighting Napoleon in Spain at the Peninsular War! The luddites have always been demonized for their position. Was it always fair to call them so?
This documentary recreates a fictional account based on historical facts, and offers an interesting point of view. We might argue that there are not too many similarities between early-nineteenth century north England being rapidly industrialized and the world today as it marches into #fourthindustrialrevolution. Perhaps the tools and the trade have changed quite a lot since then, but fundamental human needs and the social context still continues to be rather the same. When people lose years and decades of old jobs to a new technology without much of choice or support, it could create a human and social response, which could sometimes even take an ugly turn. While being termed a luddite might be a pejorative term today (as it was back then), the fact remains that those implications can’t be (and should not be) simply ignored. As we head into Industry 4.0 era and wider adoption of technologies such as #AI, we need to consider how best to bring about such changes more inclusively lest there be a potential for similar man-machine conflicts in future.
