The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Ghosts of Ned Ludd

By

Matthew Smith

Return to Article

A Ring video doorbell with a Wi-Fi camera.

Ring Doorbell

A Ring video doorbell with a Wi-Fi camera.

A weaving shed in England, 1835.

Powerloom Weaving

A weaving shed in England, 1835.

A Waymo self-driving car on the road.

Waymo Self-Driving Car

A Waymo self-driving car on the road.

An artist's depiction of Manchester, England in 1840.

Manchester in the Industrial Revolution

An artist's depiction of Manchester, England in 1840 with factories featured prominently in the background.

Example of letter sent during the Swing Riots of 1830.

Swing Letter

Example of letter sent during the Swing Riots of 1830. The letter says: "Dr Agnus. The college that thou holdest shalt be fired very shortly. Thou shalt here further from me when it is in flames. Swing Head Quarters."

An artist’s depiction of artificial intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence

An artist’s depiction of artificial intelligence featuring a humanoid robot learning.

A sign with instructions on the use of Edison Electric Light.

Edison Electric Light

A sign with instructions on the use of Edison Electric Light from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

Alexander Graham Bell at the opening of the long-distance line.

Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell at the opening of the long-distance line from New York City to Chicago, 1892.

Engraving of Ned Ludd from 1812.

Ned Ludd

Engraving of Ned Ludd from 1812.

An 1844 depiction of Luddites.

Frame Breakers

An 1844 depiction of Luddites, or frame-breakers, smashing a loom in 1812.

Stained glass window representing the burning of the Westhoughton Mill.

Burning of Westhoughton Mill

Stained glass window representing the burning of the Westhoughton Mill (1812) in the Waggon & Horses public house, Westhoughton, United Kingdom.

An example of the Arkwright Spinning Frame.

Arkwright Spinning Frame

An example of the Arkwright Spinning Frame. Luddites smashed these machines across the country between 1811 and 1817.

The mural John Kay inventor of the Fly Shuttle AD 1753.

John Kay Mural

The mural John Kay inventor of the Fly Shuttle AD 1753, by Ford Madox Brown, shows the inventor John Kay kissing his wife good-bye as men carry him away from his home to escape a mob that is angry about his labor-saving mechanical loom.

Reward poster for frame breakers in Nottingham, 1812.

Reward Poster

Reward poster for frame breakers in Nottingham, 1812. From the National Archives.

A handbill printed in March 1812 in Manchester.

Fellow Weavers!

A handbill printed in March 1812 in Manchester persuades weavers not to participate in frame-breaking. From the National Archives.

An illustration of the Molly Maguires from Harper's Weekly.

Molly Maguires

An illustration of the Molly Maguires from Harper's Weekly, January 31, 1874.

Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers under construction.

Boeing B-29

Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers under construction on an assembly line, 1944.

Vannevar Bush.

Vannevar Bush

Vannevar Bush in the early 1940s.

Ted Kaczynski during his time as an assistant professor.

Ted Kaczynski

Ted Kaczynski during his time as an assistant professor at UC Berkeley, 1968.

Jacques Ellul in his house in Pessac, France.

Jacques Ellul

Jacques Ellul in his house in Pessac, France. The photo was taken as part of the filming of the documentary "The Betrayal by Technology", 1990.

Industrial robots are used at a bakery for automated food production.

Automation

Industrial robots are used at a bakery for automated food production.

The front pages of Der Spiegel reveal fears of automation.

Automation in Germany

The front pages of Der Spiegel, a German news magazine, reveal fears of automation tracing back to the 1960s. (Image by Petra Wessman)

An image of Karl Marx in an edition of Das Kapital.

Das Kapital

An image of Karl Marx in an edition of Das Kapital.

A street demonstration in Petrograd, Russia.

Russian Revolution

A street demonstration in Petrograd, Russia just after troops of the Provisional Government opened fire with machine guns, July 1917.

Share: