Ludd Was Right: Difference between revisions

According to [http://town.hall.org/radio/LuddLand/ folklore], sometime in the late 18th century or early 19th century, a man named [[wikipedia:Ned Ludd|Ned Ludd]] broke into a factory and destroyed two machines as a protest against technology. A movement to resist the industrial revolution and favor agrarian societies named itself the [[wikipedia:Luddite|Luddites]] in his honor. Agriculture itself was a technological advancement over hunting and gathering - but of course neither Ludd nor his opponents would have known that at the time. Incidentally, it wasn't actually an anti-technology movement. It was basically a unionist movement. Traditional craftsmen, such as wainwrights and blacksmiths, were their own masters, able to work whatever hours they wanted as long as they delivered their products on time. Industrialization reduced their crafts to menial labor that could often be performed by unskilled workers. If the artisans tried to make the transition, they were faced with lower wages and fixed working hours -- somethinghours—something referred to in the American South as "wage-slavery". The Luddites were just protesting against changes they felt would destroy their way of life. Today the term 'Luddite' can refer (usually disparagingly) to any opposition to technology, though a major argument continues to be that effort-saving devices put people out of work. While some regard Luddism as a [[Dead Horse Trope]], a quick search of the internet -- orinternet—or the latest movies -- willmovies—will prove that [http://www.primitivism.com/primitive-affluence.htm not to be the case].

Examples tend to be [[Anvilicious]] [[Author Filibuster|Author Filibusters]]s.

== Technology replaces labor: ==

* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode ''"The Ultimate Computer"'': A new computer has been developed that can control an entire star-ship by itself, making crews and captains obsolete. For the entire episode, Kirk, Bones and at one point (briefly) even Spock make speeches about how terrible it is that people will be replaced by machines, how the computer will take something of what it is to be a "man" away from humanity, how computers just ''can't'' do the job with the same "heart" as people, etc. Bones evokes the trope explicitly at one point, noting how hard it is to lose one's job to automation. Of course, just to drive the point home, it turns out that [[AI Is a Crapshoot]], and the computer's designer was insane, to boot. [[Broken Aesop|Which of course]] ''proves'' that [[Ludd Was Right]]... even though it's made clear that if the designer was more psychologically stable, the computer might have worked just fine.

** The farmer/researchers in "This Side of Paradise" -- although—although their contentment with being isolated and living with minimal technology seems to stem as much from the spores as from anything else.

== Magic replaces labor: ==

== Technically advanced society as [[Dystopia]]: ==

** Side note-- Thenote—The Federation itself is a subversion of the trope.

** More advanced than Earth and has some disturbingly [[Dystopia|dystopiandystopia]]n element. And when they weren't dystopian, they either refused to help Earth and/or got blown up.

** On the other hand, Earth itself advances its technology ''considerably'', and this is never portrayed as a bad thing-- inthing—in fact it's a major purpose of the SGC. Towards the end of the show, Earth is sufficiently advanced that the show had no qualms about introducing a friendly minor civilization with near-future technology.

*** Although, it is mentioned that some technology was leaking into the commercial market, but it's rarely discussed, so it's less [[Ludd Was Right]] and more about something minor but inevitable happening.

* The remake of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' ends with the entire fleet {{spoiler|spontaneously deciding that [[Ludd Was Right]] and it's time to throw away all their advanced technology, hand the Cylon basestar over to the Centurions, launch the rest of their fleet into the sun, and embark on a [[Inferred Holocaust|primitive existence on a totally unfamiliar world]]. This was unfortunately a result of the need for the fleet to become us as shown in the coda to the finale, and flew right in the face of the lessons learned by the characters over the series. Lee actually said they needed to grow before they could attempt to live as they had done, ignoring that they had ''done just that'' over the series, even coming to gather with the artificially created Cylons (some of them), and the point had never been 'technology is bad', merely the societal problems ''they had just overcome!''}}

== [[Magitek|Magically advanced]] society as [[Dystopia]]: ==

** However, the key for many of those who pull through very well is... Industrializing, the actual technological way. Complete with smoke-belching, coal fired steam engines (the kind emblematic of the ''darkest'' days of the Industrial Revolution). Hence [[Ludd Was Right]] was almost certainly not an intended aesop.