Brian Merchant’s new book, “Blood in the Machine,” argues that Luddism stood not against technology per se but for the rights of workers in the face of automation.
The recent decline in rates of sexual activity has been attributed variously to sexism, neoliberalism, and women’s increased economic independence. How fair are those claims—and will we be saved by the advent of the sex robot?
Focusing on Ford Motor Co.’s rise, the author posits a connect between racial practices in the United States, Brazil, and South Africa and Ford’s divisive labor processes, seeing racism as an essential element in the creation of global capitalism.
After three centuries, giant factories remain sites not only of production for use but of exploitation, class warfare and environmental degradation. The book author writes of how the factory still effects our dreams and nightmares.
Throughout pop-culture history, clones and robots have served similar purposes, exploring anxieties about class and labor.
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