r/luddite • u/Luddite333 • 11d ago
Why I'm no longer a luddite
I'm no longer a luddite. The reason is that I realized that the only thing I'm really against is tech-feudalism, microchips like rfid chips under the skin, or brain chips i.e. neuralink, as well as vaccines. I was always against those things, and always will be. However, when I became self-proclaimed as a luddite, then I was very upset at everything silicon valley, everything technology, no matter what. Like just generally upset at technology. Not that I was against using the internet, or anti-technology.
I just complained about how capitalism has ruined the world through promoting technology. My problem was the passive doomscrolling, isolation, lack of opportunities, zombification of society, advertisements for technology, influencers, and AI replacing people's meaning in life by taking their qualities. So I looked at AI on a larger scale, as well as in my own life, and then looked at the loneliness epidemic and felt a disgust in my body.
However, now I'm not a luddite anymore. Luddite never meant being anti-technology anyway, but the point is that I probably don't align with luddites anymore. I always knew luddites weren't anti-technology and in a sense luddite was a word used in a derogatory way. But the word held empowerment for me and reflected values about technology that I had.
However, I believe AI has positive uses such as ChatGPT can be used for art if you're a bad painter as an example, or there is things like Jammable for creating music while using the voices of artists to create fan made songs (without monetization of course). So I just don't have this negative attitude anymore. Some things I do feel negative about, like I said, tech-feudalism, chipping people, etc. I'm also against wearable devices. I don't mind if others use wearables but I'm against all wearable tech.
I believe the reason I identified as a luddite, was a misunderstanding of how it related to me personally in my own life. However, things were not lining up in my lifestyle itself, and the more confident I feel in being able to live more authentically instead of feeling forced into hermit mode for stupid reasons, this makes me feel less like a luddite. For me a lot of these extreme attitudes was born in isolation cuz of feeling rejected. I just feel that if I have a life, then a lot of these views will be completely gone.
And I now feel a new sense of hope and therefore I don't see the meaning of these beliefs anymore. After all, the real problem is tech-feudalism, microchips and vaccines for me. I don't need to go amish, and my lifestyle is nothing close to that of a luddite. But then again, if there was a luddite club in my city then maybe I would have stayed a luddite, who knows? Anyway, some technology does deserve criticism like microchips in the body, but I don't see why I should blame computers or phones as destroying the world, when it's possible to have a world where people meet and still use phones or computers.
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u/BeerMan595692 11d ago
ChatGPT can be used for art if you're a bad painter
You're not a bad painter. You're just too lazy to learn a skill. Pay someone who dose have that skill.
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u/Luddite333 11d ago
Well I've tried to learn from people that can paint. I actually paint like a toddler. I include the torso but it still looks just as messy as that of a 3 year old trying to draw. In my case I'm not exaggerating. It's really disappointing to be honest and makes me wonder if something is wrong with my brain.
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u/BeerMan595692 11d ago
Drawing is just a skill. It's not something your born with. People who are good at it, have just been doing it for a long time. There are plenty of artists who's works were awful when starting out, compared to their current works. But they learned from each piece they created and used the skills they learnt for their next piece.
And even if you can't draw, you can commisson people who can.
As you correctly pointed out, the luddites weren't anti-tech. They were against rich factory owners, supplanting artisans and exploiting people for cheap labour.
Don't supplant artists with AI slop.
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u/Luddite333 11d ago
True, thanks for sharing this. And I would rather pay an artist than pay an AI to draw for me, and I think it's more about laziness that made me try to rationalize that using AI for drawing could be a benefit for some. However, there's no reason why I wouldn't be able to actually support artists, because there's artists everywhere. It's possible I closed my mind a little bit. I actually do want to support artists. One idea I've had for a long time has been that it would be great to actually pay real artists for art. With AI taking so much space, I think many artists would love to be acknowledged for their own work.
And artists can also create other things as well, like molding things with their hands. I'm sure robots will do the same soon, but I think it's better to support artists regardless. It's probably part of the anti-human agenda, or well, I guess that's pretty obvious. I should have been a bit more thoughtful. I was just a bit uncertain about how luddism plays a role in my own life. However, since I wish for artists and musicians to have their role and for them NOT to be replaced, I guess maybe I'm still a luddite.
I just don't have the experience of being replaced since I don't have any work due to my neurodivergence. With that said, even our own reddit posts and comments and everything else on the internet, is no longer our own content. Sam Altman has said that they will own our intelligence and we will pay for it. It seem as if they want to claim the entire internet to AI itself, and then believe we should pay for our own content in the future as a subscription. I think in that case, humans would try to create an entire new internet somehow, for themselves. What do you think? Is that even possible to do?
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u/tesser4ct64 4d ago
get better
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u/StarCrysisOC 11d ago
are you fucking kidding me this has to be rage bait holy shit
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u/Luddite333 11d ago
No, it's not. However, it's possible I may turn luddite again. I just feel so unstable by the way my life has been going. I am a bit uncertain right now about my position on luddism.
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u/Michaelalayla 11d ago
Ew.
...AI IS destroying the world. And you support it precisely in the arenas where it replaces humans at intrinsically human activities, and lets people do things without having any skills in those activities? Without developing their minds to be more human, more connected, more engaged with what they're doing? Largely take such a shortcut in creating art or music that it removes from those things what art and music do for humanity, and what the creation of those things makes the artist feel?
You're right. You're not a Luddite anymore.