Luddism

Luddism, or in terms of contemporary usage, neo-Luddism, is a term that describes a wide range of attitudes, dispositions, and actions toward an equally diverse range of technologies. All forms of Luddism share a critique of some aspect of technology, of the relationship of technology to society, or of specific technologies. Luddism is applied both as derogation and as compliment. That such variety of thought and action is explicitly linked, by both advocates and critics alike, to the historically specific Luddism of the early 19th century gives the topic much of its interest.

Between roughly 1811 and 1816 in the Midlands and North of England, groups of disaffected weavers, cloth shearers, and other textile-industry employees banded together in secret groups for the purpose of pursuing ...