Sangre en las máquinas

The most pressing story of modern technology does not begin in Silicon Valley, but two hundred years ago in rural England, when workers known as Luddites rebelled to avoid starving at the hands of factory owners using automated machines to destroy their livelihoods. The Luddites staged guerrilla raids to destroy those machines—risking the death penalty—and won the support of Lord Byron, enraged the Prince Regent, and inspired the birth of science fiction. This all-but-forgotten class struggle gripped 19th-century England. Today, technology threatens millions of jobs; robots crowd factory floors, and artificial intelligence will soon permeate every aspect of our economy. How will this change the way we live? And what can we do about it? Merchant provides the answers, weaving together a lucid analysis of our current era with the history of the Luddites, showing how automation changed our world and is shaping our future.