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{{trope}}
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{{quote|''"Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends! Well, I say there are some things we don't '''want''' to know! Important things!"''|'''Ned Flanders''', ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''}}
 
Writers are not scientists.<ref>Well, [[Isaac Asimov|not usually.]]</ref> Whether it is because they perceive science as cold and emotionless, or because they just disliked science and embraced literature [[Writers Cannot Do Math|after failing math in high school]], [[wikipedia:Luddite|luddism]] is an [[Ludd Was Right|awfully common philosophy]] in the arts community. The [[Harmony Versus Discipline|typical theme]] is that some sort of advanced scientific research has [[Gone Horribly Wrong]], [[Turned Against Their Masters|creating a monster]], causing an [[Apocalypse How|impending]] [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|natural]] [[Disaster Movie|disaster]] and/or a [[Government Conspiracy|massive government cover-up]]. The heroes typically discover the [[Psycho Serum|side-effects]] of the research and investigate, discover what's going on, and try to stop it.
 
The antagonist (almost always either [[Mega Corp|corporate]] or military/government scientists -- andscientists—and [[Beauty Equals Goodness|not]] [[Hot Scientist|hot]]) [[They Called Me Mad|refuses to believe]] that his work could be so badly [[Scale of Scientific Sins|flawed and/or immoral]], or simply doesn't care about [[Reluctant Mad Scientist|who gets hurt by it]], insisting that the research is ''[[For Science!]]!'' They will generally use their influence with the government to make life difficult for the heroes; this can include trying to have them arrested and/or [[Murder Is the Best Solution|otherwise]] [[The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much|silenced]], often leading to a shoot-out, jail break, or [[Chase Scene]].
 
In the end, the scientist will be [[Karmic Death|destroyed by his own creation]], the heroes will be proven right, and through their efforts the world will be saved from the horror of science. Sometimes the theme is softened by the presence of [[The Professor]] among the heroes who represents a more reasonable take on the science involved.
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Nearly every [[Robot War]] story is based off of this (except the ones where everything was all right, until humanity [[Humans Are Bastards|screwed it up by being jerks]] to the nice robots). There are a few popular current fields as well, like [[Cloning Blues|cloning]], [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|genetic engineering]], and [[Sinister Surveillance|surveillance]].
 
For obvious reasons, this is played down in series starring a [[Science Hero]], heroic android, or [[Robot Buddy]], such as in some anime. It's more likely that there will be a (still obvious) distinction between good and bad scientists. This is usually played up if the heroes are [[Phlebotinum Rebel|Phlebotinum Rebels]]s, though.
 
Note that not every work with a [[Mad Scientist]] or a threat borne of science falls under this; it's only the case where [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|Messing With Things You Ought Not To]] is blamed for the problems.
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* ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind]]'', at least in the manga version (which goes longer than the anime), goes back and forth between playing this trope straight & subverting it. On the one hand, the world was destroyed in a nuclear war, on the other, {{spoiler|the kindly & wise [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]] were actually created through bioengineering and so were the giant killer fungi which are actually helping to purify the Earth. Nausicaa believes that the natural order of life should prevail and that humanity needs to live or die without the benefits or burdens of the old technology.}}
* The main conflict presented in ''[[Steamboy]]'' is: that though scientists try to help the world there will either be [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|people who want to use it for profit]] or people who want use it for war. The protagonist's father is under the belief that science can save the world, the grandfather believes he is going too far, and the protagonist is neutral and just wants to make sure London doesn't get destroyed.
** In the end, though, the moral of the story feels less like '[[Science Is Bad]]' and more like 'science can be bad or good depending on how it's used.' Take for example the Steam Castle, which was {{spoiler|not originally a weapon, but the world's most advanced amusement park.}} Then there's Ray's numerous clever uses of the [[MacGuffin|Steamball]], like powering flying machines. At the very least, [[Steamboy]] manages to avoid being [[Anvilicious]] by grace of sheer ambiguity.
 
 
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* Averted in the original ''[[Godzilla]]'' in which sane scientist Dr. Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer ultimately kills Godzilla at the end. Of course, Serizawa is also very careful ''not'' to let his invention fall into the wrong hands by [[Heroic Sacrifice|dying alongside Godzilla]] and [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup|burning all papers that contain information on the device]].
** He's only concerned about the wrong hands in the American version. In the original Japanese version, Serizawa makes no distinction between right hands and wrong hands, saying that humanity's destructive nature will cause the Oxygen Destroyer to become our very undoing if ''anyone'' gets ahold of the device.
** ''[[Godzilla vs. Destoroyah]]'' retroactively questions the use of the Oxygen Destroyer by revealing it led to flesh-eating microbes that can strip organic matter immersed in water in seconds. These evolve into car-sized monsters spewing beams that disintegrate materials that possess oxygen molecules. And finally, ''these'' combine into, quite naturally, a flying Kaiju monster with a beam weapon that can kick Godzilla's ass.<br /><br />The monster verges on raising the radiation levels of the entire planet beyond what life could survive. It also questions whether the doctor's sacrifice was actually heroic as the Oxygen Destroyer was, compared to other methods, less likely to destroy cities or attempt to exterminate the human race.
 
The monster verges on raising the radiation levels of the entire planet beyond what life could survive. It also questions whether the doctor's sacrifice was actually heroic as the Oxygen Destroyer was, compared to other methods, less likely to destroy cities or attempt to exterminate the human race.
** Played straight in ''Godzilla VS Biollante'' in which genetic engineering causes the birth of a giant Godzilla-Rose hybrid monster (Biollante) with a human female soul. On the other hand, the scientists creating the Anti-Nuclear Bacteria is an aversion since it actually is one of the few things that can stop Godzilla. Despite the hero's fear that it will create another monster.
** Generally played straight with almost any Godzilla movie that explains the eponymous monster's origins or his reason for attacking. Most often he is the result of the testing of nuclear weapons, which is also the source of his [[Turned Against Their Masters|hatred of humankind]].
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* ''[[Event Horizon]]''. At one point the inventor of the gravity warp drive (which turns out to be a pretty evil warp drive) proclaims: "Captain, there's no danger... It's contained behind three magnetic fields, it's perfectly safe!" Oh science, what are you like?
* In ''[[G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra]]'' nanotechnology is the primary villain, both as gray-goo-inducing nanite warheads and as nanite injections that create superhuman flunkies for [[Big Bad|Cobra]]. There are many scientists involved in Cobra, and apparently, scientists can't be trusted: {{spoiler|Rex [[Face Heel Turn|switches sides]] because they have nanotechnology}}.
* The 2002 film version of ''[[The Time Machine]].'' Near the start of the movie, the protagonist's friend asks him whether humanity's progress will ever go too far; the protagonist replies, "no such thing."
* The 2002 film version of ''[[The Time Machine]].'' Near the start of the movie, the protagonist's friend asks him whether humanity's progress will ever go too far; the protagonist replies, "no such thing."<br /><br />He later has to admit that he was wrong -- when, in the future, he sees ''the Moon shattered into little pieces'' [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|by atomic bombs]]. Earlier, when the protagonist returned to the past to try and save his girlfriend, she was killed by a malfunctioning automobile (just as the protagonist stopped being fascinated with it because it was "just a machine," and not worth taking his attention off of his love).<br /><br />In the distant future, the Eloi are peaceful, good people with very primitive technology; the evil, ugly Morlocks have an industrial society [[Beneath the Earth]]. They also have a [[Big Bad]] with a giant brain who is especially good at engineering, and at being evil.<br /><br />And in the climax of the movie, the protagonist destroys the industrial Morlocks -- by blowing up his machine in their lair (commenting on its loss with, again, "it's just a machine"). The only positive portrayal science or technology get in the film is with the generally helpful [[Projected Man|holographic librarian]] (who [[Ragnarok Proofing|somehow survives hundreds of thousands of years]] and is shown reading books to children at the end). But his main function is to keep memories of the past (and, presumably, its follies) alive, not to represent, or aid, progress.
 
He later has to admit that he was wrong—when, in the future, he sees ''the Moon shattered into little pieces'' [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|by atomic bombs]]. Earlier, when the protagonist returned to the past to try and save his girlfriend, she was killed by a malfunctioning automobile (just as the protagonist stopped being fascinated with it because it was "just a machine," and not worth taking his attention off of his love).
 
In the distant future, the Eloi are peaceful, good people with very primitive technology; the evil, ugly Morlocks have an industrial society [[Beneath the Earth]]. They also have a [[Big Bad]] with a giant brain who is especially good at engineering, and at being evil.
 
And in the climax of the movie, the protagonist destroys the industrial Morlocks—by blowing up his machine in their lair (commenting on its loss with, again, "it's just a machine"). The only positive portrayal science or technology get in the film is with the generally helpful [[Projected Man|holographic librarian]] (who [[Ragnarok Proofing|somehow survives hundreds of thousands of years]] and is shown reading books to children at the end). But his main function is to keep memories of the past (and, presumably, its follies) alive, not to represent, or aid, progress.
* ''[[9|Nine]]'' averts this. Science is what created the construction robot, but it was the government and military that put it to evil use. The scientist who created the robot then {{spoiler|sacrificed his own soul so that life, in some fashion, could carry on.}}
* Dr. Carrington in ''[[The Thing from Another World]]'' is a complete moron who continues to insist in the face of increasingly overwhelming evidence that the alien the base is dealing with is an intelligent and peaceful being, and repeatedly endangers everyone's lives trying to communicate with it.
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* This is ''not'' the point of ''[[Frankenstein]]''. In the novel by [[Mary Shelley]], the point of the story is that Frankenstein brought a creature into the world and allowed it to turn to evil by treating it like a monster. However, this ''is'' the point of just about every film adaptation of the story, which almost always deliver an [[Anvilicious]] [[An Aesop|Aesop]].
** With the surprising exception of the [[Mel Brooks]] parody ''[[Young Frankenstein]]'', in which the eponymous scientist succeeds where his ancestor failed by accepting his creation like a loving father. When a group of his colleagues recoil in horror at the creature, he admonishes them "We are not children! We are scientists!", and the only real flaw in his creation (its permanently child-like, limited mind) is fixed by ''another'' scientific procedure, which Frankenstein risks his life to carry out.
** Stephen Jay Gould wrote one essay as a good-natured correction to people who thought ''Frankenstein'' was based around [[Science Is Bad]], pointing out that while Shelley admits that being too excessive in a pursuit is usually a bad thing, ''all'' her examples were ''political''.
* In [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s ''[[Dragonriders of Pern|Pern]]'' novels, some of the natives regard the newly rediscovered supercomputer as evil and try to destroy or discredit it, either through superstition or fear of change. The planet was originally settled by people who only wanted to leave their ''dependance'' on technology behind, not to form a Luddite civilization. In time this meant they lost all but the most basic stuff needed for survival, and because of this they suffered. It was eventually ''returning'' to the technological state which saved them, when they found AI which gave them access to all the tech the colonists planned on having, but lost.
** Given the AI is dropped in as a near-literal [[Deus Ex Machina]], and the new technology is rammed down the throats of the populace by a small group who've already developed a reputation for ruling by fiat because they saved the world and they know best.
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* This tends to be a characteristic of many Stephen King novels, including his magnum opus (the [[The Dark Tower]] series). We have
** The Great Old Ones from the Dark Tower series, who are explicitly described as being "deceived by the false light of science", replacing the magic with their own imperfect science and technology, then killing themselves off with weapons that leave the world a polluted, ruined mess.
** [[The Plague|The superflu]] from [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Stand]]''. which escapes a government lab and kills off 99.4% of the world's population--ofpopulation—of course the creators designed it to make sure an antivirus could never be made. The mini-series implies that Flagg may have had a role in the release of it, but the book itself describes it as a series of foul-ups and technical errors.
** Flagg is specifically described by [[Author On Board|Glen Bateman]] as "the last magician of rational thought" (!) and he gives an impassioned defense of the concept that they should not be so quick to recreate the technological civilization that created things like nukes and bio-engineered germs in the first place.
{{quote|'''[[The Hero|Stu:]]''' ''(of [[Magical Negro|Mother Abigail]])'' Well, it's obvious she's some sort of [[Dream Weaver|magnet]].<br />
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* [[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]: The book show us both sides of this question: In almost all the book, [[The Professor]] Aronnax, a [[Wide-Eyed Idealist]] expert on marine life is showed all the good things the [[Cool Ship|Nautilus]] can accomplish (scientific discoveries, exploration of the South Pole, teasure hunting, etc). Only after [[The Reveal]], that the Nautilus is used as a terrible (for the standards of the 19th century) [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]], Aronnax’s [[Heel Realization]] lets him know that those good things can’t justify the terrible violence.
* The second and third ''[[Dinotopia]]'' books were quite [[Anvillicious]] about this, although it should be noted that they were more anti-technology than anti-science, since the protagonist himself was a scientist (although more of a naturalist, really).
* [[The Tripods]] used this,but as a pretense of the antagonists rather than an actual theme of the work. The Masters gave the appearance that they blamed science and technology for humankind's evilness, thus pushing humanity back to the middle ages with the Caps. (ie sending the [[Science Is Bad]] message through the caps.) It was really to stifle creativity and independent thinking and make humans easier to subdue.
 
 
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* While the ''[[Stargate]]'' series mostly avert this, the ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' episode "Trinity," wherein McKay finds an abandoned Ancient experiment to produce limitless energy, it's repeatedly suggested that he is getting in over his head (The Ancients did not complete the program, and it went rather wrong). Despite constant protestations that this is a field they are simply not ready for, McKay continues. In the end he ends up destroying a Stellar System. While the episode plays the aesop straight, a later episode has a solution to the problems from the first time, and the attempt is assisted by an Asgard, the most technologically advanced race who will talk with humanity.
** Well, five sixths of a Solar System. It's not an exact science.
* On an episode of ''[[CSI]]: NY'', this trope is used to demonize the science of Genetics. It starts off with a supposed dead man being stolen from the back of the van that was bringing it to the morgue. Then the body is dumped in the river, fished out and then found to be alive... brain dead, but alive. They find their way to a genetics research lab that's making goats produce silk in their milk and rats grow ears on their backs. The scientist in charge explains the benefits of it (silk in bulk, replacing a lost body part) but the cops just remark about how weird it is and when they leave remark that it's wrong. The main character going so far as to say progress was great, "but should've stopped."<br /><br />Turns out the genetics lab induced human hibernation on the victim, which the victim was involved in voluntarily and by accident the vic took too much of the mixture they created too fast. He ran out choking and collapsed. They stole him from the van thinking he was alive, thought he was dead when they couldn't revive him and dumped him before they got in more trouble for their unethical experiments. When confronted by this news the head scientist can only remark about his delight that it worked and lists off all the benefits like prolonged space travel and how he will be famous.<br /><br />The second suspect tries to tell the cops how putting them away will "shut the door on the future" as [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup|no one else knows the formula but them]], but to the cops the complicated issue is simple, they committed attempted murder (even though they thought the guy was already dead) and are going to jail. It's not "robot apocalypse" or "mutant monster" worthy, but it still denotes the same thing: science is weird... and bad.
 
Turns out the genetics lab induced human hibernation on the victim, which the victim was involved in voluntarily and by accident the vic took too much of the mixture they created too fast. He ran out choking and collapsed. They stole him from the van thinking he was alive, thought he was dead when they couldn't revive him and dumped him before they got in more trouble for their unethical experiments. When confronted by this news the head scientist can only remark about his delight that it worked and lists off all the benefits like prolonged space travel and how he will be famous.
 
The second suspect tries to tell the cops how putting them away will "shut the door on the future" as [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup|no one else knows the formula but them]], but to the cops the complicated issue is simple, they committed attempted murder (even though they thought the guy was already dead) and are going to jail. It's not "robot apocalypse" or "mutant monster" worthy, but it still denotes the same thing: science is weird... and bad.
* ''[[Eleventh Hour]]'' generally runs on this trope, as should be expected of a show about a duo that takes down people who apply new technology unethically. However, it does at times depict the potential good that can be done with stem cells, genetic engineering and the like.
* Most of the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' avoids this, but the finale takes a great big swerve into [[Writer on Board]] territory. {{spoiler|First, everybody decides to chuck their technology and revert to hunter-gatherer barbarism in the hopes that their descendants will do better. Second, Ron Moore confirms that, after a thoughtful examination of how difficult it is to break the cycle of revenge, he chucked the metaphor and explained that [http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2009/03/battlestar_galactica_ronald_d.html he's scared of our new Japanese robot overlords].}}
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== Music ==
* The entire ''01011001'' album by the metal opera group [[Ayreon]]. See the song "Unnatural Selection" for a particularly [[Anvilicious]] example.
* [[System of a Down]]'s "Science" is entirely devoted to explaining in detail how [[Science Is Bad]] and has "failed us," as "spirit moves through all things." [[Hypocritical Humor|Performed on electric instruments.]]
* [[Styx]]'s album ''Kilroy Was Here'' includes some brief diatribes, not against science per se, but against technology:
{{quote|The problem's plain to see
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** The [[Broken Aesop]] of the entire [[Old World of Darkness]] oWOD]] was that the creeds opposing "stasis", represented by the science that regularly changes the world, were heavily into hierarchy and hadn't changed in centuries.
** In the ''[[New World of Darkness]]'', things have taken a step or two away. Werewolves still largely distrust technology, because it's done more to screw up the Shadow Realm than just about anything else, but they accept that it has a place and hold this version's technophile tribe, the Iron Masters, in better regard than their past counterparts. In fact, one of the ''antagonist'' Pure Tribes is given the "Luddites" hat (it's worth noting the Pure are ''very'' reminiscent of the Garou). Over in ''Mage'', things haven't changed as much; the Free Council, [[Spiritual Successor]] to the Virtual Adepts, are given short shrift largely because they're rather young and tend to make nuisances of themselves.
** The fanmade ''[[Genius: The Transgression]]'' certainly can give this vibe, but it's actually not an example since no comment is made on sane science -- orscience—or arguably an aversion since the further a Genius' beliefs differ from reality, the one sane scientists are so busy documenting, the easier it is to slip into outright grave-robbing, god-defying, blood-splattered [[Mad Science]].
* Kicked in the balls by ''[[Cthulhu Tech]]:'' the main reason why humans have a fighting chance is because science found a way to make Magitek and [[Humongous Mecha]].
{{quote|'''Random Free Councilor:''' "Told you so!"}}
* Settings where [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]]. Of course, most of these worlds are [[Cyberpunk]] [[World Half Empty|dystopias]], so they often feature the [[Science Is Bad]] trope in other ways, too.
* ''[[SLA Industries]]'', where it's probably impossible to count all the examples of "SLA tries to solve their problems by engineering a new breed of super-monster, but it goes nuts and [[Turned Against Their Masters|turns against them]]".
* ''[[Kult]]'', where "Victim Of Medical Experiments" is a viable Dark Secret for players. Oh, yeah, along with the fact that the growth of cities and technology is actually part of the breakdown of the illusion that is reality -- thereality—the illusion that's covering up the horrifying ''true'' reality underneath it.
* In ''[[GURPS]] Traveller Interstellar Wars'' this is averted. The Terrans are excited about science because they like everything new. The Vilani are not interested in advancement but only because their ancestors deliberately decided that it was coming to a point of diminishing returns, not that they hated it in principal. Most of the sympathy is with the Terrans although the Vilani are not treated without sympathy despite the fact that the word Vilani sounds like villain. Both sides are Federations and the chief cause of the war seems to be mutual arrogance.
* In the original ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' "Known World" campaign setting (later renamed [[Mystara]]), the ancient civilization of Blackmoor was technological, but destroyed itself in what is implied to have been a nuclear war. The Immortals decreed that this could never be allowed to happen again. However, they allowed one pocket of Blackmoor society to endure as a lost land in the Hollow World with the caveat that all of its simulated "technology" is actually magic based, and therefore impossible for its citizens to reverse engineer, reproduce, or improve upon.
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** Subverted in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''. The characters (and the population of Spira in general) spend most of the game thinking that the [[Big Bad]] was created as punishment for bad science, only to find out that {{spoiler|it's actually magic gone wrong. They eventually defeat him with machines believed to be evil, instead of the religious ritual they were meant to use.}} By ''X-2'', both of the major factions (the Youth League and New Yevon) agree science is okay; their major disagreement is how fast it should be implemented (New Yevon being the more conservative faction).
*** It's also the reason that the Al Bhed are ostracised from society; they've always made heavy use of machina, and are the only ones to speak out against the idea of the [[Appeal to Tradition|summoner's pilgrimage]], though this is mainly because of {{spoiler|the fact that the process ends up in the death of the summoner for what would only be a quick breather from Sin's malice}}.
** ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' waffles back and forth on this one. On the one hand, many of the characters rely on technology and science to live and get by, particularly after the events of the game itself. But characters like Hojo, who experiments on people purely to satisfy his own ego, rather than benefiting humanity, and the rest of Shinra Inc. tend to abuse it. Also, bear in mind the game's environmental message, and how going back to a simpler, rustic existence was seen as favourable to an advanced one. However, Bugenhagan, the head of the most rustic settlement in the world, enjoys his ride on the Airship, calling the technology something akin to "the wisdom of man." The real message doesn't seem to be that [[Science Is Bad]], but that Science needs to be used carefully.
* Played with in ''[[Okami]]'', where {{spoiler|[[God of Evil|Yami, God of Darkness]] is implied to be the originator of Technology and is basically a [[Humongous Mecha]] (albeit with a squishy core resembling that of a fishbowl)}} as well as the fact that the demons Lechku and Nechku are robotic owls. However, Waka's Tao Warriors use [[Magitek]] computers and the Moon Tribe apparently do have some access to advanced technology. In fact, helping a mechanic with his research will give Amaterasu the power to summon lightning. Ultimately, it seems that Science and Evil don't exactly go hand in hand.
* ''[[Mother 3]]'' heavily suggests that the proliferation of technology would bring about the world's downfall, especially given how certain scenery transforms as the game progresses. Though it seems to hint more at an '[[Eagle Land|American culture is bad]]' message. Which is really ironic given how the first two games celebrated modern society and used the setting as an [[Affectionate Parody]] of American culture.
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* Similarly, obesity is becoming a problem as physical labor becomes less necessary, while the nutrition (including fat) density of food goes up and hyperstimulants act on humans' in-built desires and cause them to eat more.
* This is a primary view of the Anarcho-Primitivist movement, and John Zerzan especially, who condemns ''writing and abstract thought'' as among other things, they lead to, you guessed it, technology and science. "Technology" simply means tool-making, something humans (and chimps, and crows...) do by nature, so [[Humans Are Bastards]] and need to die or be lobotomized in their view.
** For those of you wondering what Zerzan ''does'' approve of, his ideal is basically one of acting on little more (''if'' more) than immediate desire and instinct. Not to mention a way of experiencing one's environment that's open to its totality--thetotality—the main reason he detests abstraction, reification, and naming, as distractions that make one only take in a subset at a time. Suffice to say that he thinks the only unalloyed-good form of communication is ''telepathy'' (q.v. the idea that "lovers need no words"--even—even though that has more to do with being used to each other's methodologies).
** It's also worth noting that many anarcho-primitivists don't abjure tools, in the sense of objects utilized and/or modified for a very specific task (q.v. crows), and (more importantly) not requiring specialization. The sort of technology they think has no place in a viable society is the sort that requires just such specialization (and, by corollary, relinquishing of anything ''else'' you could do for the people...even if you yourself ''initially'' sought to abjure the other tasks to fine-tune that one goal, apparently). This basically means anything more complex than a kayak, bow, or fishing weir. Science is Bad here because it tempts one towards that which requires mandated labor division.
* It bears repeating that in fictional works, as in real life, science and technology are often treated as interchangeable, though they are not. Often a criticism of a particular application of a technology, or of its social repercussions, but may not be a criticism of the scientific method of study and problem solving - but are grouped under the anti-science label anyway - either by mistake or as an attempt to discredit the criticism. As mentioned above, Luddism was more a social/political movement focusing on the role of industrialization on labor displacement and working-class oppression, than a pure [[Irrational Hatred]] of technology (in modern popular usage, the context is edited out, and "Luddite" basically means primitive and reactionary).
** On the same note, efforts to point out bad science can also get shoved under the anti-science label, for the same reasons.
* Theodore Kaczynski, [[wikipedia:Ted Kaczynski|better known as the Unabomber]], took this trope too literally.
* One of the many things the Khmer Rouge killed people for was being educated. They wanted a technology-free society, and they pretty much got one--completeone—complete with rampant disease, starvation, and getting their asses ''stomped'' by neighboring Vietnam.
* [[Nicolas Gomez Davila|Nicolás Gómez Dávila]], the Colombian philosopher, believed [http://don-colacho.blogspot.com/2010/01/technique-technology.html wholeheartedly] in this.
* [[Taoism]] is, as ever, paradoxical. On one hand, its focus in material immortality through Alchemy and the workings of Nature led to many progresses in Chemistry, Medicine and related fields. On the other hand, phylosophical Taoism believes strongly in Harmony (the principle of ''wu wei'', without ado) in the [[Harmony Versus Discipline]] conflict, also believing that human knowledge is inherently limited and flawed (down to the very tool used to disseminate it, language), and thus prone to messing the true order of the Cosmos.
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