Robotics, AI – and the History of the East End’s Fight Against Machines
AI, robotics and automation are developing at such a rapid pace that they threaten jobs and, some say, the very existence of the human species! At the very least, we can expect a crisis of purpose at the point where AI can do everything better and faster than humans.
AI has its sights on lower clerical tasks, so hairdressers, surgeons and others who do fiddly work with their hands are safe – for now. Rest assured, this is going to be the fastest technolgical revolution by far but can we learn from earlier periods of history where technology encroached on livelihoods, or is this technological shift unique within itself? It’s not all bad news; there’s talk of a brighter future – a utopia, perhaps, where dreary, repetitive work is reduced, if not eliminated, leaving more time for leisure and wellness pursuits. Well, at the moment Generative AI is doing all the cool art and poetry and leaving us with the laborious jobs and heavy lifting! So, what’s the true story? We look at the wider implications, with one eye on lessons from centuries past.
Luddites and machine looms
The word Luddite has negative connotations. Today, we think of someone uncomfortable with new technology – a ‘dinosaur’ who prefers their trusty rusty Amstrad to the supercool Apple Mac. But the original meaning comes from a 1811 uprising by a band of Nottinghamshire textile workers whose livelihoods were threatened by the introduction and widespread use of mechanised looms. But did you know there were ‘Luddites’ in East London centuries before this more famous Midlands movement? In 1675, the silkweavers of Stratford, Whitechapel, Bethnal Green and Spitalfields rioted in protest against the introduction of machine looms. And it was a success, they chased off the machinists and won a minimum wage deal!
Luddites destroying looms
These East End weavers worked with handlooms, but ‘outsiders’ using new machine looms were muscling in on the manufacture of the ever-popular silk ribbons worn by the middle and upper classes. Back then, silk was a luxury item. In the 1600s, weaving was a cottage industry with families working from home as a unit. The adults worked handlooms while children as young as six did simpler tasks; but from age 12, you were considered old enough to work a loom. Affluent master weavers would subcontract work out to these home workers and both were impacted by ‘outsiders’ undercutting their customer base.
Moreover, the master weavers and the East End weavers were peeved that the owners of these mechanised looms hadn’t been through the system – an apprenticeship where clear protocols were followed. This unspoken system kept wage levels somewhat manageable and constant. This triggered silkweaver riots, during which they destroyed machine looms, setting them ablaze in the street in unceremonious bonfires. The three-day protest made an impact at the highest level. Even though the rioting was easily crushed by the army and many weavers were hanged, the government was sympathetic to their plight, and this slowed the introduction of mechanisation by a century. Indeed, a law was passed giving the silkweavers a ‘Right to Search’ – which basically meant they could go around harassing any ‘outsider’ weavers who used engine looms. And to top it off, they won a minimum wage deal.
This is in stark contrast to the more famous 1811 Luddites, who were mercilessly suppressed by the army. Even though their protest spread quicker and over a larger area, encompassing the counties of Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Leicestershire and Derby, no real concessions were gained. Despite this more localised success in East London, the handloom versus machine loom fight was still raging in the 1770s. And by the 1830s, the introduction of the steam-powered loom had led to a 30% drop in wages compared to 1824. So the machines won in the end. It seems you just can’t stop the unbridled growth of new technologies.
Industrial revolutions
It’s been said that AI and robotics presage the fastest technological revolution by far, so let’s look a little closer at this ‘unbridled growth’ century-by-century. In 1642, Blaise Pascal invented a simple adding machine – the first calculator. In 1822, Charles Babbage invented the Difference Machine, a calculating machine recognised as the first computer but it was never constructed in his lifetime. At this time, horses were the main mode of transport – just as they had been in the 1600s. Railways would not appear until the 1830s and the first motor car in the 1880s. The first working digital computer, the ENIAC, was built in 1945, and was the size of a room, weighed 30 tons and cost $6,000,000. Your average mobile phone available from around 2001-2 had 1,300 times the computing power of the ENIAC. In 2019, Google’s Sycamore quantum computer solved a mindboggling calculation in 200 seconds; the world’s best super computer at the time would have taken 10,000 years. Since then, Google has produced an even better model called Willow which is achieving the impossible. And a few days ago, China’s Zuchongzhi-3 quantum computer outpowered them all; it’s a million times faster than Google’s Willow! Godlike intelligence is reshaping our world. Quantum-powered AI is being developed exponentially week-to-week, month-to-month at a pace and scale incomparable to anything in history.
The AI revolution
Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton is often described as the Godfather of AI because of his work in the field. He is now trying to show the dangers of AI development and claims humanity is at risk. He admits that no one knows quite how AI works: it can’t just be switched off or slowed down. We do know that AI learns through neural networks much like the neural networks of the human brain. As a student, Hinton sought to create computer software that imitates the brain’s neural networks. AI has about a trillion neural network connections compared to our brain’s hundreds of trillions but uses that lesser amount more effectively. He believes it will one day gain consciousness and may be sentient even now.
Stratford Centre in a decade?
So perhaps, within a decade, there will be a digital species more intelligent than humans. With humans the second most intelligent lifeform on Earth, it’s not just the loss of repetitive, boring and dangerous jobs we should be concerned about. Right on cue, Elon Musk’s humanoid Optimus robots are becoming more dexterous and intelligent. Priced around $20,000, thousands of units are expected in 2026, by which time they will have optimised their neural net training to manage household tasks and within a decade take our jobs. Although they are not yet fully autonomous, many believe that one day these robots will be able to think and respond for themselves. And Musk believes they will outnumber humans.
So outmatched and outworked on all sides, products won’t be bought and consumed and work will be a thing of the past. I guess you’d expect a gradual shift to some kind of universal basic income for the unemployed. How will this affect regions of the world where this transition is less fluid? The wider socio-economic and geopolitical implications have not been fully examined. But we’re all curious about this coming Brave New World.
And since we began with the 17th-century silkweavers’ fight with the machines, let’s end with he words of silkweaver and Fifth Monarchist John Mason. He was caught participating in the 1675 silkweaver riots and said these words during his brutal interrogation. When they asked: ‘But why?” he replied, “looking forward to a time when men would not labour and toil day and night…to maintain others that live in idleness.” The AI revolution just might go that way.
