Brian MerchantBesprekingen

Reading

An excellent history of the Luddite uprising from the perspective of the workers, not the wealthy elites who have brought us the popular, and false, narrative that the Luddites were anti-technology. Merchant does a fantastic job of showing how the events of the past continue to ripple out into today. He suggests, we are ripe for a New Luddite movement, and makes a good case for it.

Brian Merchant writes articles for newspapers and magazines; he has been a technology columnist for the Los Angeles Times publishing entity. Blood in Machine (2023) is a book published in print and as an ebook. It explains when and where the Luddite movement was active. He draws on large body of material. The history of the Luddite movement and its suppression have been discussed extensively by economic. social and literary writers and historians in works written and published for two centuries. He largely (re)tells the story of the protest movement early in the 19th century against the introduction of industrial machinery to spin thread and yarn, and weave and process cloth in the West Midlands and Lancastershire in Engand. He focusses on the peaceful complaints and protests against the economic effects of the introduction mechical devices and "factories". He argues that the balance of power between workers and persons investing capital in the making of policy and law and the enforcement of law favoured the monied interests. He illustrates the point by showing that the working classLuddites had sympathy and support from some political and literary figures, but were suppressed brutally.
He argues that the word "Luddite" was and is used, in a pejorative way, to refer to opponents of technical innovation.
He argues the use of information technology in the last 20th and early 21st centuries is as disruptive for workers as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Europe. He argues effectively that economic elites, and their advisers, advocates and followers, use information technology to dissolve employment into "relationships" that are poorly paid and onerous for workers.
He tries to make his book more relatable by imagined conversations between historical persons, based on a few 19th and early 20th century works that took that approach. These passages are credited to source works in the many notes which appear in endnotes to most chapters and in the extensive "notes" at the end of the book,

Sembla que la intenció de l’autor, periodista però no historiador, és explicar la introducció de les màquines en el tallers a principis de la revolució industrial com l’inici d’un moviment encaminat a empobrir la humanitat. I el fenomen que va començar fa 250 anys ara continua amb les aplicacions de la Intel·ligència Artificial. El títol ja m’hagués d'haver posat en alerta, però des de fa una anys sovint el títols dels llibres són sensacionalistes, dirigits a captar l’atenció del lector passavolant, A vegades un mal títol ha amagat un bon llibre. Aquesta vegada no ha estat així, ni de bon tros. El problema principal és que la manca de imparcialitat i de visió general del llibre crea una gran desconfiança al lector, que acaba no sabent si està llegint una novel·la de Charles Dickens, un pamflet,o les dues coses a l'hora.

Per a mi, els problemes que presenta aquest llibre són diversos. L’autor pensa que el lector comparteix amb ell el seu biaix, i des de les primeres pàgines fa un ús excessiu de les qualificacions buides i obvia les descripcions. És un llibre per a lectors ja convençuts i sense gaires ganes d'assabentar-se del que parlen. Tampoc l'autor no és amic de presentar dades, però si opinions, anècdotes sense substància i apel·lacions als sentiments. Per exemple, en diversos capítols cita diàlegs de la novel·la històrica Ben o' Bill's, de 1898, que narra les peripècies dels protagonistes a principis del segle XIX barrejant fets reals i ficció. En un llibre d'història això no té sentit. Al llarg de tot el llibre es sentencia molt sovint amb afirmacions agosarades posades entre cometes, però que reclamen urgentment d'una referència a peu de pàgina. Tot això està bé per a un articulista d’El Periódico, però no per a un llibre que ajudi a entendre la realitat. L'abast temporal del llibre és curt. La meitat de 1811, tot el 1812 i la meitat de 1813. Sospito que deixa fets rellevants fora de la narració. El sistema de referenciar és un desastre. Les referències estan al final del llibre, però costa molt assignar-les al text original, perquè no hi ha cap número que permeti fer l'assignació més enllà del número de pàgina. Això no ho havia vist mai. Em temo que l'editor del llibre, presoner d'una situació intolerable, no ha tingut més remei que sabotejar sense contemplacions a l'autor, a fi de recuperar la dignitat de la seva feina.

L’última part del llibre està dedicada a invectivar contra l’organització de la fàbrica moderna. Dubto que l'autor n'hagi vist gaires. Aquí es sucarra un sofregit amb Apple, Terminator, Elon Musk, Uber, Amazon, Frankenstein i altres figurants que resulta bastant indigest. Proclama molts eslògans, alguns carregats de raó, però que sense una mínima explicació econòmica no permeten que el lector entengui res. Ho trobo una manca de respecte greu. La temàtica del llibre supera la capacitat de l'autor. En resum, el preu pagat pel llibre és un import malaguanyat.

Decent enough overview of the iPhone (materials, design, factories, team dynamics, precursor technologies, key technologies) but nothing new and nothing really insightful in the analysis. Good for people unfamiliar with the industry. 3 star for techies.

I had expected a more captivating book. The focus on prior at goes back so far as to file is impact. For instance I was left without a clear understanding of how multichannel works.
Perhaps the continuing development of iOS and the iPhone have somehow left the book behind.
I didn't get the feeling the author was truly enthusiastic about the iPhone. It seems more like a kiss and tell.

Merchant's task here was to tell as much as he could about the way that the i-phone was developed, and give some background into how the i-phone was developed, created and marketed. To be honest, there are a lot of gaps here due to Apple's and Steve Job's obsession with secrecy. Most of the information comes from interviews with the few people who had worked for/with Apple and were willing to talk to Merchant.

Frankly, Apple and Jobs sound awful. The intensity of the work on the i-phone destroyed marriages. Different parts of the team weren't allowed to fully talk to each other, so the i-phone was put together in pieces. Job's took credit for the idea and execution, which wasn't at all true -- he was against working on the i-phone when it was first presented to him. I-phones are made in factories in China where the workers are treated awfully.

However, the i-phone WAS and is a genius product, that really revolutionized the way we live today. It was interested to find out more about this; from the use of touch screen technology to the development of Siri. The interesting thing is that this really isn't a one person product; its the result of a team of people within Apple; plus adjuncts from within and without Apple, who worked night and day to create a new product, which they could not even imagine at the start of the process.

Merchant tells the story in a lay-person, journalistic sort of way, which fits in well with the material. There were times I wanted more, and other times I wanted less. But overall, it works.½