{"id":21063,"date":"2025-08-29T20:28:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T00:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21063"},"modified":"2025-08-29T20:28:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T00:28:28","slug":"are-we-all-ned-ludd-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21063","title":{"rendered":"Are we all Ned Ludd now?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
When you do a web search for “Ned Ludd,” this is the only picture our computer overlords have to offer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday,<\/strong> my Close Personal Friend\u00ae, Gene Edward Veith<\/a>, posted an article describing a recent report out of Microsoft Corporation, predicting which jobs are most threatened by Artificial Intelligence. Ed\u2019s post is subscription only, but the report itself can be found here<\/a>, if you care to read it. It includes the following list of endangered jobs, in order of endangerment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Interpreters and Translators<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Historians<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Passenger Attendants<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Sales Representatives of Services<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Writers and Authors<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Customer Service Representatives<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. CNC Tool Programmers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Telephone Operators<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Broadcast Announcers and Radio DJs<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. Brokerage Clerks<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  12. Photographers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  13. Technical Writers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  14. Tour Guides<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  15. Copy Editors and Proofreaders<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  16. Librarians<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  17. Museum Technicians<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  18. Archivists<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  19. Event Planners<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  20. Public Relations Specialists<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  21. Marketing Coordinators<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  22. Social Media Managers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  23. Conference Coordinators<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  24. Advertising Sales Agents<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  25. Travel Agents<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  26. Court Reporters<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  27. Paralegals<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  28. Insurance Underwriters<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  29. Claims Adjusters<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  30. Survey Researchers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  31. Market Research Analysts<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  32. Fundraisers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  33. Grant Writers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  34. Instructional Coordinators<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  35. Human Resources Specialists<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  36. Compensation and Benefits Analysts<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  37. Training and Development Specialists<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  38. Executive Assistants<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  39. Office Managers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  40. Data Entry Keyers<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    This will be, of course, a troubling list for many people. For me, it\u2019s already kind of old news, as I, in my old gig, translation, (Number One on the list), have already been \u201cmade redundant,\u201d as the English say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Nowadays I find myself in sympathy with the legendary Ned Ludd, an English weaver who supposedly broke up a \u201cknitting frame\u201d because the technology threatened his traditional job. (In fact, his legend seems to be older, going back to a boy who was disciplined for sloppy work and smashed the machinery in a fit of pique. Later on, when mechanization arrived, the people opposed to innovation were labeled \u201cLuddites.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A better hero for us enemies of progress would probably be John Henry, the hero of the folk ballad, who raced a job-threatening steam drill and beat it, but worked himself to death in the effort. I remember that even as a boy I viewed John Henry as emblematic of something that was going on in the world \u2013 little did I guess how high the stakes would get in my own lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (Continued on page 2<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

    Am I against A.I.? Not as such \u2013 though I bloody well refuse to accept Microsoft Word\u2019s courteous offer, every time I open a new document, to help me through their AI app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    No thank you, Microsoft. I will bloody well write my own blankety-blank prose. If your artificial intelligence had any actual intelligence, it would have guessed by now that I cook (metaphorically) from scratch.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But what I keep wondering is, \u201cWhat is A.I. for?\u201d As I recall, the original announced intention was to free human beings from drudgery, so that we could produce creative stuff, and do work that we love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But look at that list. Translation isn\u2019t drudge work \u2013 it\u2019s a labor of love to me. As is Number 5, writers and authors. Photographers come in at Number 12. Is that drudge work? Historians get Number 2 \u2013 I don\u2019t even understand what that means. Broadcast announcers and radio DJs are at Number 10 \u2013 that won\u2019t even save much money, as most of those guys barely get paid in the first place (as I know from experience).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is this in service of? Instead of relieving humans of drudgery, it\u2019s beginning to look as if the only work left for human beings will be servicing the computers that run the A.I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I have a vague idea that cautionary science fiction stories have been written about that very scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But can A.I. really do all these things? Do we really think A.I. can replace historians like David McCullough and Paul Johnson? Photographers like Ansel Adams or Margaret Bourke-White? Seriously?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    No doubt some kinds of books and stories could be written by A.I. The crappy, standardized, pulpy stories that used to be written for cheap magazines and paperback publishers. Pornography, certainly. But when I read a really good book, I feel myself to be in some kind of communion with another human soul. I don\u2019t believe A.I. can fake that. I think the people who champion A.I. “art” have no idea what the human mind is. We\u2019re not just faster computers, who\u2019ll be surpassed once the chips get powerful enough. The fire of beauty burns in physical nature, but does not arise from her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I\u2019ll admit, real creative work in the future will cost a lot more than A.I. stuff will. Who\u2019ll pay for it, when all our jobs have been eliminated?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On Wednesday, my Close Personal Friend\u00ae, Gene Edward Veith, posted an article describing a recent report out of Microsoft Corporation, predicting which jobs are most threatened by Artificial Intelligence. Ed\u2019s post is subscription only, but the report itself can be found here, if you care to read it. It includes the following list of endangered … Continue reading Are we all Ned Ludd now?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[225,231,1049,5679,5678],"class_list":["post-21063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs-social-media","category-uncategorized","tag-art","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-gene-edward-veith","tag-john-henry","tag-ned-ludd"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21063"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21066,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063\/revisions\/21066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}