Luddites Were the First to Attack AI: The Punch-Card Loom Was Computing's Ancestor
soumitrashukla9 · x · 2026-10-12
Economist Alex Tabarrok argues the Luddites weren't just the first to resist automation but in a sense the first to attack AI.
- The Jacquard loom (c. 1805) used chains of punched cards to control thread patterns — arguably the first serious programmable device
- Babbage borrowed the punched-card idea directly for his Analytical Engine in the 1830s, making the loom a direct ancestor of the computer
- The Luddites were crushed militarily, but they also lost because programmable looms democratized patterned textiles: intricate designs once requiring teams of skilled weavers could be produced by a single operator
- By Jacquard's death in 1834, thousands of his looms ran in Manchester, epicenter of the Luddite riots
The takeaway: resistance to new technology loses to the tide of cost and capability.
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