One of this week’s milestones in the history of technology sets the tone to two centuries of debating the impact of machines and artificial intelligence on human work and welfare.
On February 27, 1812, Lord Byron gave his first address as a member of the House of Lords in a parliamentary debate on the Frame Breaking Act which made destroying or damaging lace-machines (stocking frames) a crime punishable by death.
Criticizing the proposed legislation advanced by the government in response to textile workers protesting the industrialization and mechanization of their craft, Byron told his peers : The rejected workmen, in the […]
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