Haha those Luddites, raging against their fear of the unfamiliar rather than just getting with the times. Look where all that aimless lashing out got them! Here in the modern world we are clearly very enlightened and understand that technology is obviously good. Obviously. If only they had just stopped to think about their true role in society!

Here’s a funny little story. Let’s suppose a group of people were experienced and employed in the field of producing ‘soft wares’, and took pride in producing such wares that were functional and resilient. In order to produce these wares, this group of people often made use of all sorts of sophisticated tools and machines that enabled them to produce soft wares more advanced than they were capable of making by themselves. Now also suppose that some years prior a line of bullshit machines had been produced that a relatively unexperienced labourer could use to slop out soft wares that were not fit for purpose, but that could perform a reasonable facsimile for long enough to become somebody else’s problem.

I know there’s a lot to be imagining here, but please additionally try to suppose the existience of some sort of Manager of Business Assets, who sees these bullshit machines and is amazed at their productivity and how little training it takes to use one. Various MBAs thus load up on bullshit machines and implore their staff to make full use of them, keeping a close eye on utilisation but not at all considering any usefulness of the resulting wares. The MBAs are all-in: they proclaim their intent to lay off or dock the pay of anyone that elects not to use a bullshit machine in favour of producing wares any other way, and will bring in new people with little to no experience making soft wares to operate the bullshit machines, for lesser pay, in those people’s place.

And hey, maybe a bullshit machine occasionally leads to someone’s untimely death, but it’s a small price to be paid (by others) for such productivity!

One last hypothetical. Suppose you are a producer of soft wares, witness to all these conditions arising from very explicit goals. Might you be inclined to take direct action against the existence of bullshit machines in your workplace?