Brian Merchant

The true story of what happened the first time machines came for human jobs, when an underground network of 19th century rebels, the Luddites, took up arms against the industrialists that were automating their work--and how it explains the power, threat, and toll of big tech today. The most pressing story in modern tech begins not in Silicon Valley, Seattle, or even Shenzhen. It begins two hundred years ago in rural England, when working men and women rose up en masse rather than starve at the hands of the factory owners who were using machines to erase and degrade their livelihoods. They organized guerilla raids, smashed those machines, and embarked on full-scale assaults against the wealthy machine owners. They won the support of Lord Byron, inspired Mary Shelley, and enraged the Prince Regent and his bloodthirsty government. Before it was over, much blood would be spilled--of rich and poor, of the invisible and of the powerful. This all-but-forgotten and deeply misunderstood class struggle nearly brought 19th century England to its knees. We live now in the second machine age, when similar fears that big tech is dominating our lives and machines replacing human labor run high. We worry that technology imperils millions of jobs, robots are ousting workers from factories, and artificial intelligence will soon remove drivers from cars. How will this all reshape our economy and the way we live? And what can we do about it? The answers lie in the story of our first machine age, when mechanization first came to British factories at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Intertwined with a lucid examination of our current age, the story of the Luddites, the working-class insurgency that took up arms against automation (at a time when it was punishable by death to break a machine), Blood in the Machine reaches through time and space to tell a story about how technology changed our world--and how it's already changing our future.

The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech

Blood in the Machine

The secret history of the invention that changed everything- and became the most profitable product in the world. Odds are that as you read this, an iPhone is within reach. But before Steve Jobs introduced us to "the one device," as he called it, a cell phone was merely what you used to make calls on the go. How did the iPhone transform our world and turn Apple into the most valuable company ever? Veteran technology journalist Brian Merchant reveals the inside story you won't hear from Cupertino-based on his exclusive interviews with the engineers, inventors, and developers who guided every stage of the iPhone's creation. This deep dive takes you from inside One Infinite Loop to 19th century France to WWII America, from the driest place on earth to a Kenyan pit of toxic e-waste, and even deep inside Shenzhen's notorious "suicide factories." It's a firsthand look at how the cutting-edge tech that makes the world work-touch screens, motion trackers, and even AI-made their way into our pockets. The One Device is a roadmap for design and engineering genius, an anthropology of the modern age, and an unprecedented view into one of the most secretive companies in history. This is the untold account, ten years in the making, of the device that changed everything.

A secret history of the iPhone

The One Device

Claire L. Evans

An anthology of near future science fiction from VICE’s acclaimed, innovative digital speculative story destination, Terraform—in print for the first time. Assembling a remarkable roster of writers old and new, Terraform’s founding editors Claire L. Evans and Brian Merchant have established their platform by publishing short fiction seemingly ripped from tomorrow’s headlines, speculative fiction about the very near future. Over the last several years, as science fiction itself has achieved a new kind of mainstream credibility and the media landscape has transformed entirely, Terraform has blazed an unexpected path that has seen short stories go viral and lent fiction an unparalleled urgency and relevance. Drawing from established luminaries like Cory Doctorow, rising stars like E. Lily Yu, and surprising newcomers, Terraform stories are marked by their convincing engagement with the world that we just might live in, putting our most existential issues into startling dramatic context. Divided here into three categories—WATCH/WORLDS/BURN—these stories take on surveillance, artificial intelligence, and climate collapse

Watch/Worlds/Burn

Terraform

Describes how the inception of the iPhone has transformed society and skyrocketed Apple to the most valuable company in the world, detailing how the most current technological advances have become inseparable to everyday life.

Brian Merchant

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