In a world riven by great-power conflict, economic decoupling, high inflation, and worries that the interests of capital are being put ahead of workers, an obvious enemy can emerge: technology. The best way to preserve the status quo is to destroy the machinery that promises a change to existing ways.

That was the thinking of the Luddites, a movement of textile workers in early 19th century England. Discomfited by the trade embargoes and financial crisis of the Napoleonic wars, they smashed up powered looms and weaving frames, hoping to slow the tide of innovation they saw as undercutting their livelihoods.