Our Tech, AI and Society Dialogues 

Anthropos Technicus 
(ἄνθρωπος τεχνικός) 

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025
Hours: 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Location: McGill Downtown Campus, Leacock Building, room 110. See map here.

This event is open to the public. Please scroll down to secure your seat.

A shared resources site for Anthropos Technicus readings and other resources has been set up on the Discord app at https://discord.gg/huCCw5CR3C. Please join us!!

Series Description 

This series will delve into the ethical and societal implications of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies that call into question conventional distinctions between human beings and machines. By exploring thought-provoking books and films, we aim to foster engaging discussions and critical thought about the impact of technology on our lives. Each session will focus on a specific work, using it as a springboard to discuss contemporary issues and concerns. 

Session 8: Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech

Overview: 

This session focuses on Brian Merchant’s Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech, in which he revisits the Luddite movement of early 19th-century England and draws parallels to today’s digital economy and algorithmic power.

Merchant challenges the common image of “Luddites” as knee-jerk anti-technology simpletons. As Merchant illustrates through dense research into the history of the period, Luddites were skilled artisans and workers who contested how technology was being deployed  especially when automation was used to undercut wages, erode autonomy, and concentrate wealth.

Merchant sees modern technology, AI, gig platforms and surveillance systems as continuations of the same structural tensions: technology as a locus of power and control.  

Discussion Points: 

• Luddite as a Lens: Attacks on machines were not expressions of anti-innovation; they were struggles over social and political power, wealth and control.
• Deployment vs. Invention: Is the technology itself the problem, or is it more how it is deployed, managed and used, especially by corporations and institutions? 

• Change Management & Resistance: How have workers, communities, and institutions responded to radical technology transitions (think in terms of adaptation, pushback, refusal, or redesign)? What strategies are available now (e.g. regulation, unionization and collective bargaining, alternative design, or public oversight)?

• Parallels & Contrasts: In what ways do the power dynamics of the 19th-century industrial revolution mirror current technology / AI ecosystems? Where do they diverge?

• Agency, Autonomy & Human Value: As machines offload tasks, what becomes of human purpose, skill, dignity, and self-worth? 

These challenges will guide our conversation and encourage critical thinking about our future.

Recommended Materials:

• Blood in the Machine. The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech (2002) by Brian Merchant. Available at the McGill Library or your favorite bookstore.
• Interview with Brian Merchant (there are many others!)

While we encourage participants to read/view these works, no prior reading or viewing is required—come as you are!  The dialectians will have a short presentation to frame key themes and scenes.A private recording (for internal notes only) will be made; it will not be shared publicly.

Why Attend?

• To broaden our understanding of technology deployment. Far from being anti-technology, Blood in the Machine invites us to question which technologies, for whom, and under what terms.

• To see change as design. Understanding how technological transitions are managed (or mismanaged) gives us levers to intervene.

• To draw parallels with modern AI & algorithmic governance. The analogies with gig work, surveillance, displacement, and platform power are sharpened through history.

• To open a space for dialogue. What futures do we want to build or challenge?

This session is open to all!

Our Dialecticians:

Dr. Sue Laver  

Inaugural director of the McGill Writing Centre and a lecturer for many years in McGill’s Department of English, Sue is a Frankenstein aficionado. Her interest in Frankenstein began when she first watched her now longstanding favourite “Frankensteinian” film Blade Runner upon its theatrical release in 1982. Through various courses on the gothic genre and its science fiction spinoffs, Sue has guided hundreds of students through Frankenstein’s philosophical complexities and its afterlife in popular culture, with emphasis on the metaphysical and ethical status of the Monster and its technological descendants. 

Mr Nabil Beitinjaneh

Business Strategist and AI/ML/Analytics Expert. Faculty Lecturer at the McGill School of Continuing Studies, focused on adult learners who want to upskill, guiding learners on their journey to become AI-savvy change-makers. Nabil is engaged in leadership, strategy, and organizational development through events, training, and his service with not-for-profit organizations. He is an ambassador for TechAide which supports Centraide of Greater Montreal, and the president of Le centre culturel syrien. He is also on the leadership team of McCAIS, the SCS' Faculty Advancement Board, and the MMA Advisory Council.

Shape the Conversation
Our Tech, AI and Society Dialogues (Anthropos Technicus) invites experts and enthusiasts to serve as dialecticians. Lead a session, guiding a discussion on a book or topic that explores technology's human impact. To propose a topic or learn more, reach out to Sue or Nabil at the event.
 

This event is a collaboration between the McGill School of Continuing Studies,  the McGill Computational and Data Systems Initiative and the McGill Collaborative for AI & Society.