Schedule FSCONS 2014

The Luddite Aspects of Hackerdom is about hackers against technology. Some hackers resist technological change when the latest developments are harmful to users and society. Similarly, in the early days of industrial capitalism when factory technologies were introduced to further exploit and control workers, Luddites broke machines and went rioting. However, they were not against all technologies, only against the technologies which they identified as socially detrimental. I present three case studies which show different tactics hackers choose in the struggle against particular technologies. The irony is that you often have to develop new machines to break the machines that you don’t like. So resistance to technology can be technologically productive too. These anti-technology machines are time machines which bring users and developers back in time to an older era, on a mission to change the course of history. Critical capacity (agency) comes from the ability to move in time, not from completely accepting or rejecting new or old technologies. I look at how such a critical relationship to technology works and what are the social conditions which make it possible to adopt the stance of the Luddites.

Info

Day: 2014-11-02
Start time: 11:00
Duration: 00:45
Room: C444
Track: Peer Production
Language: en

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