This is an audio version of the newsletter Dialectics of Decline. Subscribe at www.dialecticsofdecline.com Forget everything you thought you knew about the Luddites. They weren’t simply anti-technology rebels, but skilled workers fighting against exploitation - a struggle that eerily mirrors our modern concerns with AI and automation. This eye-opening episode explores how today’s technological revolution, particularly AI, threatens to amplify worker exploitation and surveillance, just as industrial automation did centuries ago. Through fascinating historical parallels, we examine how the benefits of innovation often flow to the few while undermining workers’ rights and wages.