This is The Ned Ludd Radio Hour – your weekly dose of tech scepticism, cynicism and absurdism. Hosted by me, Nick Hilton. This is a podcast for people who love tech and people who hate it (just not for those who don't care).

Each week the new Ned Ludd sends me a missive (republished below) and then I speak to a top bod (or two) about issues that I think are interesting. This week I'm speaking to Gavin Mueller, an academic at the University of Amsterdam and author of Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Were Right About Why You Hate Your Job. We're talking about AI, automation and how human sense of purpose can survive all that....

“1. THE RIGHT TO WORK.

There is a right to work. It is not the same as of analogous to income rights. It is closer to the right to purpose. A cat has the purpose of catching mice. A dog has the purpose of companionship. Man has the purpose of work. In the future, technology will limit that purpose. Some will grow richer and some will grow poorer. That equilibrium will be seen as proof of in-effect. Automation and machinization will be seen as net neutral. But what will be lost if man is stripped of purpose? A fat cat lying in the sun? A dog dragging its ass across the carpet? We work because it is a human impulse even when it is not a human necessity. Take someone’s purpose away and they are depleted. They become a zoo exhibit. A penguin pecking at the concrete where a sardine once was. A panda gnawing its gums bloody on eucalyptus. We have a right to purpose, which means we have a right to work.”

The Ned Ludd Radio Hour is a Podot podcast, written and presented by me, Nick Hilton.

The theme music is Internet Song by Apes of the State, used with their generous permission. The artwork is by Tom Humberstone.

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