Neo-Luddite Reading Group

Schedule Resources Why We Fear AI

Time and Place:⊕

"You talk as if a god had made the Machine. I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. The Machine is much, but it is not everything."
- E.M. Forster

Contact:
neoluddite@victorgom.es
Twitter
Bluesky
Substack The 2nd Wednesday of each month 6:30-8:30 EST in-person at Iffy Books. There is also a virtual option for accessiblity purposes, also hosted by Iffy Books

Email neoluddite@victorgom.es, or sign up at iffy to be added to the mailing list! Necessary for receiving the jitsi link (video-conferencing software we will use) and if you'd like to join the discord.

The issues and harms surrounding emerging technologies are especially concerning given the lack of regulation in the tech industry generally, and the tendency of productivity-increasing technology to further concentrate power in the hands of the few. This reading group will explore these risks and engage with how they work in the hopes of better organizing to protect the rights of workers and individuals. The goal is to have a better understanding of the costs (data, carbon, human labor) and risks (misinformation, unpredictability, bias) of making these machines, as well as limitations in what they can learn about the world primarily through data scraped from the internet.

We're currently reading The Mechanic and the Luddite by Jathan Sadowski.

Archived pages of our previous books include: Why We Fear AI, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Resisting AI, The Human Use of Human Beings, Race After Technology, Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech, and The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence by Matteo Pasquinelli. If you'd like to learn more about me, you can visit victorgom.es for a bio.

Schedule

If you're joining for the first time, I'd suggest you read this before anything else for brief context: What the Luddites Really Fought Against by Richard Conniff.

The only expectation is that you read the chapter(s) of the book that's listed for that meeting. You're still welcome to participate if you haven't done the readings as long as you are mindful. For each chapter, I've also noted some optional readings for context, so I'd suggest checking those out rather than reading ahead in the book. And remember, if you ever find yourself struggling with any of the readings or concepts, reach out! Either directly to me over email or to the entire group over discord.