Summer of Ludd

I am in full agreement with Jay Baker’s assessment of the importance of communications technology; like Jay, I have used a combination of Linux and Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) to teach people who face daily isolation how to use technology to (re)connect. Indeed, many of the technologies which have been put to nefarious ends by capitalists also have the ability to provide life-changing benefits. Meta’s much-maligned AI glasses are undoubtedly used in highly unethical ways, but the same technology has also provided amazing new tools to aid vision, hearing and memory.

The problem I have with Jay’s article is that I don’t feel that either myself or the Autistici/Inventati hacktivist collective were taking a particularly anti-tech stance. My own writing may have been muddy, as it was actually an extension of a rant I posted on social media to explain why, on a personal level, I was no longer engaging with social media. But I think Autistici/Inventati’s statement that “we need 1,000 more infrastructures of dissent to be born, new, safer, stronger”, is clearly not a reflection of a supposed ‘Luddite’ position.

The Luddite position itself has been grossly misrepresented over the years. Before automated machinery, weavers were in a position to choose when to work, and this work was done within their homes and their own communities. The Luddites opposed the way new machinery — and with it, the emerging factory system — was used to crush autonomy, dismantle community-based labour, exploit and alienate people who were once artisans, undercut wages, lower quality, and enrich the minority at the expense of the few. In short, the Luddites were anti-capitalist, not anti-tech. And they were murdered for it.

AI — which should really be named Automated Plagiarism — is the factory loom of our era. Not only is it being used by capitalists to replace the work of artisans, drastically lowering aesthetic and intellectual quality with its shit interpretations of music and art as it goes, it is advancing the alienation, anxiety, stress and suicidal depression which was begun by capitalism, advanced by neoliberal indoctrination and exasperated by the advent of social media to globally epidemic proportions. This mental health crisis was brought into focus by the recent Meta Trial (which sadly put a $500 price tag on the lives of our children).

Jay said that I “recommended keeping your phone in your pocket ‘in favour of engaging directly with real human beings'”, whereas my actual statement was: “Keep your phone in your pocket and only take it out when it notifies you that there is a real human being who wants to connect” — an admittedly ham-fisted reference to the fact that some people are now communicating with bots rather than real people in around 40% of social media ‘engagements’, a percentage set to increase as AI becomes ever more convincing. And yes, even this technology could potentially benefit some people given that we’re social animals and even an artificial connection is better than none. But surely, as anarchists, we should be obliged to create genuine human connection wherever possible?

In New York this summer there was a week-long, phone-free festival called the Summer of Ludd. It was a celebration designed to protest Big Tech and technofascism. Led, as the future should be, by Gen Z, everything was meticulously handcrafted and focused on a diverse range of subjects, from fighting data centres to how to flirt offline, with an underlying rule of “Be present, and absolutely no phones, recording, or photos allowed.” It was one of many such initiatives worldwide, including a very exciting art project in Wales which I am not even allowed to mention online… oops!

Needless to say, I love this emerging movement, but herein we are forced to come back to Jay’s increasingly essential point; how do we ensure that this rising tide carries everyone? Tech savvy anarchists can help in many ways, from encouraging a drift from Big Tech platforms to the likes of Signal and Mastodon (while keeping an ever-vigilant eye on these alternative platforms) to building Autistici/Inventati’s “1,000 more infrastructures of dissent”.

I know that Jay would embrace the creation of new online and offline anarchist media projects. Offline info-sharing such as zines are already re-emerging, and I can testify that the 1990’s double-sided A4 news-sheet SchNEWS not only kept people informed, but allowed isolated activists to photocopy the publication and disseminate information in their hometown (giving them a real sense of connection). And leaning into the needs of the ardent offliners, techies could easily create local, decentralised, peer-to-peer, off-grid, Meshtastic-based mesh communication systems to help ensure that nobody is left out.

We must always remember that internet access is a privilege which is denied many people around the world, anarchist mesh services could help here. Although it is also worth noting that the Arab Spring became a physical movement once Twitter was turned off by the state and people congregated in the squares to share information.

The (re)building of community is a central goal of anarchism. As I have said elsewhere, relationships are key to building a better, braver, brighter future for all. Any initiative, vital or virtual, which helps build relationships should be considered, but only if we have autonomous control of the medium.