Mathematicians Are Like Luddites

The comparison treats mathematicians as modern counterparts to the Luddites: not people opposed to technology in general, but skilled workers whose livelihoods and status were threatened when machines changed how work was done. Textile workers resisted different machines and labor practices - framework knitters attacked frames used by unpopular employers, croppers opposed shearing machinery, and weavers faced power looms. Their struggle concerned who controlled production and whether their skill would retain its value; violent repression and industrial change eventually eliminated most traditional jobs. The Jacquard loom encoded cloth patterns on punched cards, making designs repeatable and helping inspire later computing. The account also links weaving with language and craft, suggesting that fabric once embodied a level of human skill much like mathematical proofs do.

Mathematics, once chiefly the pursuit of elites, later relied on clerks and “human computers” for routine calculation while researchers focused on abstract ideas. The author argues that AI is now making mathematical work - especially computation and proof production - far cheaper and more commercially useful, threatening mathematicians’ scarcity, status, and employment just as mechanized textiles did for weavers. A small group able to judge and direct machine outputs may temporarily gain influence, much as elite fashion designers survived the collapse of mass tailoring, but the author expects even that advantage to fade as AI enters every stage of work. The craft may flourish in output while human roles shrink, and the transformation is unlikely to reverse.