Science fiction is a Luddite literature

My latest column for Locus Magazine.

My latest column for Locus Magazine is “Science Fiction is a Luddite Literature,” and it’s my contribution to the burgeoning movement to rehabilitate the reputation of the Luddite uprisings, overturning the libel that Luddites were motivated by a fear of technology:

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

The Luddites were a 19th century guerrilla movement that smashed textile machines, burned factories and threatened their owners. But they were not motivated by a fear of technology, and they were not irrational.

Rather, the Luddites — who took their name from the mythological General Ned Ludd, whose legend included the smashing of weaving-frames — were engaged in the most science-fictional exercise imaginable — asking not what a technology does, but who it does it to and who it does it for.

The Luddites, you see, were skilled weavers, whose intense physical labor produced the textiles that clothed the nation. The difficulty of their trade — both in terms of esoteric knowledge and physical prowess — allowed them to command high wages and good working conditions.

All that was threatened by the advent of textile machines, which produced more fabric…