Neo-Luddism: Difference between revisions

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	'''Neo-Luddism''' is a personal philosophy against ].<ref name=jonesagainstechnology>{{cite book \| last = Jones \| first = Steve E. \| title = Against technology: from the Luddites to neo-Luddism \| publisher = CRC Press \| date = 2006 \| location = \| pages = 20 \| url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YwPP4pGRAwgC&dq=Neo-Luddism&source=gbs_navlinks_s \| isbn = 9780415978682}}</ref> Neo-luddism is based on the historical legacy of the British ]s which were active between 1811 and 1816.<ref name="jonesagainstechnology"/> Neo-luddism does not equate necessarily to outright ] and includes the critical examination of the effects technology has on individuals and communities.<ref name=christensenencyclopedia>{{cite book \| last = Christensen \| first = Karen \| coauthors = David Levinson \| title = Encyclopedia of community: from the village to the virtual worls, Volume 3 \| publisher = SAGE \| date = 2003 \| location = \| pages = 886 \| url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=t1geOjQ6R0MC&dq=Neo-Luddism&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s \| isbn = 9780761925989}}		'''Neo-Luddism''' is a personal philosophy against ].<ref name=jonesagainstechnology>{{cite book \| last = Jones \| first = Steve E. \| title = Against technology: from the Luddites to neo-Luddism \| publisher = CRC Press \| date = 2006 \| location = \| pages = 20 \| url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YwPP4pGRAwgC&dq=Neo-Luddism&source=gbs_navlinks_s \| isbn = 9780415978682}}</ref> Neo-luddism is based on the historical legacy of the British ]s which were active between 1811 and 1816.<ref name="jonesagainstechnology"/> Neo-luddism does not equate necessarily to outright ] and includes the critical examination of the effects technology has on individuals and communities.<ref name=christensenencyclopedia>{{cite book \| last = Christensen \| first = Karen \| coauthors = David Levinson \| title = Encyclopedia of community: from the village to the virtual worls, Volume 3 \| publisher = SAGE \| date = 2003 \| location = \| pages = 886 \| url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=t1geOjQ6R0MC&dq=Neo-Luddism&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s \| isbn = 9780761925989}}
	</ref>		</ref>

Revision as of 18:19, 28 January 2010

Neo-Luddism is a personal philosophy against modern technology. Neo-luddism is based on the historical legacy of the British Luddites which were active between 1811 and 1816. Neo-luddism does not equate necessarily to outright technophobia and includes the critical examination of the effects technology has on individuals and communities.

Views

Opposition to the adoption of technology and challenges to the notion of supposed technological progress are sentiments that are echoed across history. In Gulliver's Travels (1794) Jonathan Swift poked fun at the Royal Society, the oldest scientific society in Britain, and both Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson extolled the virtue of unaltered nature.

Neo-luddism conjures pre-technological life as the best post-technological prospect (see also primitivism), or as Robin and Webster put it, "a return to nature and what are imagined as more natural communities". Industrial Society and Its Future (1995) is a recent expression of neo-luddism by Theodore Kaczynski. The manifesto states:

"The industrial revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in 'advanced' countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilled, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to psychological suffering in the Third World (to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world."

Neo-luddism may also be expressed as doubts as to whether new computer and internet based technology really brings benefits, or the belief that we were better off before its advent. Neo-luddism is the opposite of technophilia, the belief that technological innovation will remedy all ills. Neo-luddism challenges the assumption that all that went before technology is redundant and to be disregarded because of its inferiority. While neo-luddism is a fringe movement, some of its ideas, critiques and solutions have broad resonance in contemporary culture; for example, quests for a "simple" way of life.

Neo-luddism may express itself in stark predictions about the effect of new technologies. John Philip Sousa for example regarded the introduction of the phonograph with suspicion, predicting:

"a marked deterioration in American music and musical taste, an interruption in the musical development of the country, and a host of other injuries to music in its artistic manifestation, by virtue - or rather by vice, - of the multiplication of the various music-producing machines."

Famous Neo-Luddites

Bill Joy - Why the future doesn't need us

References

^ Jones, Steve E. (2006). Against technology: from the Luddites to neo-Luddism. CRC Press. p. 20. ISBN 9780415978682.
^ Christensen, Karen (2003). Encyclopedia of community: from the village to the virtual worls, Volume 3. SAGE. p. 886. ISBN 9780761925989. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
^ Bell, David (2005). Science, technology and culture. McGraw-Hill International. p. 55. ISBN 9780335213269.
^ Graham, Gordon (1999). The Internet: a philosophical inquiry. Routledge. p. 7. ISBN 9780415197496. Cite error: The named reference "grahaminternet" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).

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