2025-09-19 –, Main stage
Luddites fought automation that entrenched power into the hands of the wealthy risked their agency and damaged their way of life. AI threatens to do the same. We as software developers have the ability to empower our audiences to take back their agency, but we must learn from history.
In the 1810s wealthy industrialists rolled out new automation technologies that reduced the agency of the workers who operated them, and replaced the work of skilled artisans with shoddy alternatives at rock bottom prices, enabling the economic engine that drove chattel slavery in the US south and the imperialist economic policies of the British empire in India.
In the 2020s wealthy tech titans are rolling out new automation technologies that reduce the agency of the workers that use them, and proport to replace the work of skilled workers with shoddy alternatives at rock bottom prices.
This is not inevitable. We have the power to build alternatives that preserve agency and dignity. But we must learn from the past.
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CJ is a software developer and game designer from Nottingham, England. They have worked across the industry in publishing, advertising, security and retail, and have specific interests in cybersecurity and history. They are also a published game designer and miniature sculptor, using python to test miniatures wargames.