Anti technology movements have a long history. The most famous one started in the early 19th century in Great Britain. The matter in question is Luddism. 

This was the time of change in manufacturing. The textile workers protested against machines that took over their jobs. Luddites destroyed the technology in an attempt to save their employment. But they protested not so much against innovations, but rather the growing unemployment.

Historians are still working on defining the importance of this movement. More and more research papers are being written by scientists and learners who often delegate such tasks to professionals from Essaypro other similar platforms. Meanwhile, the term Luddism has become a name for movements against technology.  The legacy goes on, and there are several movements against technology now. Let’s discuss the most important ones.

Neo-Luddism

This is a philosophical movement that inspires many people. They believe that technology cannot solve modern problems without producing more issues. The advocates promote simple living and rejection of many modern technologies. They also claim that the progress should slow down as there is little control over it now.

The movement is also connected with radical environmentalists and anti-globalization ideas. The first claim that technology cannot save the environment. In 1990 Chellis Glendinning published “Notes towards Neo-Luddite manifesto” that offers the view on anti-technology philosophy.

The activists have several ways to address the technological progress. Some of them choose to reject it completely and do not use any devices or recent findings. They also stay away from consumerism and materialism, pointing out that there are more important things in life. Some advocate punishing those who promote technological progress, like scientists or engineers. 

One of the sadly known Neo-Luddists was Theodore J. Kaczynski, who was called Unabomber by FBI. He was a Math learner who entered Harvard at a young age. 

However, after some years, Theodore moved away into the woods. There he started to mail homemade bombs to universities, airlines, and scientists. There were 16 bombs sent overall, causing three deaths. He also published a manifesto against technology in The New York Times.

Of course, his story is a particular case and does not represent the movement itself. However, there are some predictions that future unemployment caused by automatization can lead to an increase in terrorist attacks motivated by similar views.

Anti-Science

The main idea of this movement is that science cannot be a way to find an objective truth about the world. Anti-science philosophy questions science and the methods it uses to make any suggestions.

Some claim that the roots of anti-science go back to Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher. He was not convinced by the methods that the scientific revolution used to come to any conclusions about the world and human nature.

There is also a part of the anti-science movement that is connected to religious beliefs. Some scientifically proved ideas are in contradiction with religious beliefs. And people choose to reject them as materialistic.

Overall, the movement is extremely wide. There are those who offer reasonable criticism of the scientific process. There are also anti-vaxxers and people who don’t turn to medical care because of their beliefs. 

The very idea behind approaching any information critically is not a bad one. Yet, there are radical beliefs and extreme cases in any movement.

Anarcho-Primitivism

This movement rejects the civilization itself and the technology it has developed. Anarcho-primitivists believe that the shift to agricultural civilization brought social and economic inequality and overpopulation. The idea is to go back to a simple life and stir away from civilized ways of living.

The proponents of this idea are against industrialization, globalization, and technology. The philosophy is hugely based on anthropology and archeology that have reevaluated the hunting and gathering era of humans. 

It is described as a peaceful time that was much happier and free. Civilization is, on the contrary, directly linked to violence, domination, and power distribution.

The adepts of this paradigm criticize technology, labor diversification, and consumerism. However, the majority of them still maintain a civilized way of living, which is one of the main critique points.

From these three philosophical standpoints, ironically, this one has less to offer when it comes to actual steps in rejecting civilization. It is hard to imagine society going back to hunting and gathering times, so the argument is basically theoretical.

Final Words

There are many reasons why people are against technological progress. Some of them are scared that we will not be able to control what we’ve created. Others are concerned with the predictions of unemployment and machines taking over. 

Some people believe that technology has already caused enormous damage to the planet and society, and the progress should be stopped.

In fact, it is a well-known formula – as soon as something new appears, there are people who are against it. However, there are many reasonable concerns about progress and new technologies.

An announcement was made earlier this month in which to celebrate the first discovery of a two-star planetary system, called TOI-1338 b, encountered by NASA’s TESS mission. It’s estimated to be nearly 7 times bigger than Earth and orbits its two host stars every 95 days. One of these stars is much bigger and far brighter than the other and as the planet orbits around it stops some of the light from getting to the brighter star. And it’s this transit that enables astronomers to measure the planet’s size.   

The project was completed by a collaboration of researchers including some from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and San Diego State University (SDSU). It was then presented on behalf of the team by Veselin Kostov at the 235^th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). NASA’s Kepler Mission ended in 2013, but while in operation, a dozen of similar planets were found. The orbiting TESS telescope is expected to get much better results as is covering nearly the whole sky. 

A new Kepler circumbinary planet called KOI-3152 b was also revealed at the AAS meeting in Honolulu. “We first noted convincing evidence for this planet in 2012, but confirmation required additional data and improvements in computer modeling,” said William Welsh, one of the SDSU astronomers. “In particular, star spots on the primary host star and a weak eclipse signal from the second star made the analysis difficult.” In 2019, Quentin Socia, one of Welsh’s master’s thesis students, went on to accept that challenge. In doing so he discovered something new – Planet KOI-3152 b. 

Planet KOI-3152 b is more than 1,300 light-years away, nearly 4 times the size of Earth, and it completes an orbit of its binary stars every 175 days. It’s a low-density gaseous planet that’s unable to support any kind of life that we know.  

While most discoveries made in the Universe are pretty amazing these findings are particularly exciting as they mark the beginning of a deeper understanding of the existence of such planetary systems. 

Using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and a complex network composed of several metallic nanowires, a team of international researchers demonstrated how to mimic electrical characteristics associated with various higher order human brain functions. This includes things like learning, memorizing, become alert, and calming down.  

The development of such advanced AI techniques has grown steadily over the past few years and has impacted our lives in many ways. And while AI attempts to process data in a similar fashion to that of the human brain, there is still so much that we don’t understand about it, making this a very difficult task. One of the major pieces of information we are lacking is how the brain carries out certain functions such as learning, memorizing, become alert, and calming down.

But a live brain is extremely hard to work with when it comes to this kind of research. So instead, a joint international research team led by Tomonobu Nakayama, Deputy Director, International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), NIMS, Adrian Diaz Alvarez (Postdoctoral Researcher, WPI-MANA, NIMS), Zdenka Kuncic (Professor, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia) and James K. Gimzewski (Professor, California NanoSystems Institute, University of California Los Angeles, USA), took a different approach.

Together the team developed a complex network in which to mimic the brain. This system consisted of numerous silver wires that were coated in a very thin polymer (PVP) layer. Between two nanowires sits a junction that acts as a neuronal synapse. Collectively, it forms an intricate neuromorphic network. When applying a voltage to the network it had difficulty in finding optimal current pathways.

The team measured the various processes involved in current pathway formation, retention, and deactivation as they current continued to flow through the network. What they discovered was the processes always fluctuate as they progress, similar to that of the human brain when memorizing, learning, and forgetting. The same kind of temporal fluctuations also occurred when the brain became alert or returned to calm.  

Next on the cards for the research team is to develop a brain-like memory device using the same network material. Unlike current computers, this device will operate using completely different principles such as making decisions quick as opposed to those with optimum solutions. Hopefully, this research will help facilitate a better understanding of the way in which the brain processes information. 

Quite possible, thanks to a group of Princeton scientists. While scientists have been delving into the world of quantum computing for quite some time now, because of its complex nature, we’re still not as far forward as we’d hoped for. One of the reasons for this is up until now, the hardware that’s used to make up a silicon quantum computer has been limited in the distance in which it can communicate across. However, researchers at Princeton University have been working hard at trying to solve this problem, and alas, may have just discovered a solution.

The new study, published in the journal, Nature, demonstrates how two silicon “spin” qubits are able to interact with one another even when placed apart on a computer chip. Being able to transmit messages across this distance on a silicon chip is a pretty amazing accomplishment and one that enables a whole new wave of quantum capabilities. According to

at Princeton and lead author of the study, “the eventual goal is to have multiple quantum bits arranged in a two-dimensional grid that can perform even more complex calculations,”. And this study should help do just that by improving the communication of qubits both on a single chip and from one to another. 

Quantum computers are amazing machines that can carry out complex equations and perform factoring of numbers far bigger than any classical computer known to man. In addition to that, a quantum bit (qubit) has the ability to represent a range of simultaneous values between 0 and 1, whereas with a classical computer it must be one or the other. The problem is that in order to work effectively these advanced computers will need thousands upon thousands of qubits all communicating with one another. So far, companies such as IBM and Google have superconducting circuits of less than 10 qubits. 

Silicon spin qubits, on the other hand, are showing much more promise and have several advantages over superconducting qubits. Their quantum state is retained for longer, and because silicone is so widely available, the cost of manufacturing the qubits would be lower too. The tricky part is that they’re so incredibly small, making them quite difficult to work with. However, Petta’s team has done well in helping to prove that it can be done by connecting qubits located about half a centimeter apart. To do this the team had to first get the qubits and photon to communicate in the same language by setting all to vibrate at the same frequency. In doing so they managed to tune both qubits individually, at the same time as being coupled to the photon.

A double quantum dot is a name given to the tiny chamber of a qubit which traps inside it a single electron. When the electron is blasted with a microwave field, the spin can be flipped, and the quantum state changed from that of a 1 to 0 or vice versa. “This is the first demonstration of entangling electron spins in silicon separated by distances much larger than the devices housing those spins,” stated senior scientist at HRL Laboratories and one of the collaborators on the project, Thaddeus Ladd. Researchers were previously under the impression that this would never happen because of the “conflicting requirements of coupling spins to microwaves and avoiding the effects of noisy charges moving in silicon-based devices”, he continued. But, the team persevered and succeeded.

This kind of research builds upon previous work carried out by the Petta team back in 2010 where they demonstrated how it is possible to contain single electrons within quantum wells. In 2012, the team announced the transferring of quantum information from nanowires’ electron spins to microwave-frequency photons. 2016 saw the team demonstrate near-neighbor trading of data in qubits. While in 2018, they showed the exchanging of information from a silicon spin qubit to that of a photon.        

In the Western world, macular degeneration (AMD) is the cause of blindness in millions of people. It’s also the top cause of severe sight loss for those aged 50 and over, in the same region. Unfortunately, as of yet, there is no cure for AMD. However, thanks to recent research carried out by researchers at Bar-Ilan University along with colleagues at Stanford University, things may be about to get a whole lot clearer for these patients. 

The retina is the part of the eye that contains light-absorbing receptors, aptly named photoreceptors. Information is taken in here and the transmitted to the brain. But before it can get sent, the data must be processed and it’s the central area of the retina, the macula, which carries out most of this enabling us to do things such as recognize faces and see while driving. The kinds of things that require accurate vision. In the region of the retina outside the macula, in the peripheral retina, things aren’t so precise. This region assists mainly with spatial judgement. AMD causes the impairment of precise vision due to damage to the center of the retina, while there is no adverse effect on the peripheral vision. 

If the photoreceptors become damaged one potential course of treatment is to implant an artificial retina made up of tiny electrodes. By activating these electrodes, the remaining retinal cells become electrically stimulated. The result being a partial restoration of sight. People with AMD who have the implant have a combination of normal peripheral vision and artificial central vision. Having a mix such as this is important to research in order to help those who have permanent sight loss. The only real question here is “can the brain integrate both natural and artificial vision effectively.

The study was published in the journal Current Biology. “We used a unique projection system which stimulated either natural vision, artificial vision or a combination of natural and artificial vision, while simultaneously recording the cortical responses in rodents implanted with a subretinal implant,” explained Tamar Arens-Arad, one of the researchers on the project. Prof. Yossi Mandel, Head of Bar-Ilan University’s Ophthalmic Science and Engineering Lab and lead author of the study is extremely pleased with the results and is hopeful they can be used to improve restoration of sight in AMD patients with retinal implants as well as in “future brain-machine interface applications where artificial and natural processes co-exist.”

The latest figures suggest that across the world there are between 7 to 10 million people who have been diagnosed with having Parkinson’s Disease. This neurodegenerative condition often manifests through symptoms such as slow movements, tremors, and problems with balance.

Currently, the only real diagnostic testing systems in place are pretty uncomfortable for the patients and often involve walking long distances over extended periods of time. A group of like-minded researchers based in Saudi Arabia and Sweden feel this is unacceptable and have proposed a new kind of (less physically demanding) testing as an alternative.

“Apart from gait and balance data, the measurement of computer keystroke time series that contain information of the hold time occurring between pressing and releasing a key has been proposed for detecting early stages of Parkinson’s disease,” explained Tuan D. Pham, professor of biomedical engineering in the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization at Linkoping University in Sweden, and author of the paper. While the disease itself isn’t fatal, the side effects of it can be. And with so many people being diagnosed with it, the need for early detection methods is essential. 

In this new style of testing, subjects are asked to push either one or two buttons down on a device such as a smartphone. They are asked to do this as fast as possible for just a short amount of time. Plotting the results from the study as fuzzy recurrence plots on a grey-scale image of the texture, the researchers were able to see the similarities and differences in those with the early onset of Parkinson’s and those without. “The results obtained from the fuzzy recurrence plots are encouraging for the collection of practical data recorded from participants and their usage for the classification task,” Pham said.    

The next move for the team is to use the fuzzy recurrence plots further and adapt the algorithm to better analyze a patient’s disease state. They will also spend some time looking at the gait dynamics of Parkinson’s, Huntingdon’s, and Lou Gehrig’s disease. 

For years and years scientists have been trying to get their head around dark matter, and still, it remains a mystery. That being said, thanks to Low-Surface-Brightness (LSB) galaxies new information has come to light relating to the mysterious phenomenon. 

Leading the study is Scuola Internazionale Superiore Di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) astrophysicist Chiara di Paolo. “We have found that disc galaxies can be represented by a universal relationship,” explained Paolo. “In particular, in this study, we analyzed the so-called Low-Surface-Brightness galaxies, a particular type of galaxy with a rotating disc called this way because they have a low-density brightness”. 

Alongside colleagues Paolo Salucci, a fellow astrophysicist at SISSA, and Erkurt Adnan from Istanbul University, Paolo studied the speed at which the gases and stars which make up the galaxies’ subject matter rotate. From this they noted that all LSBs behave in a very similar way to one another. This provides the researchers with several clues as to the existence and behavior patterns of dark matter.

While you cannot see dark matter, it is there in bucket loads. It’s estimated that dark matter accounts for around 90% of the total mass of the Universe. In order to study dark matter, scientists must use other objects in the cosmos to see how the two interact. Because it doesn’t emit any light, dark matter cannot be observed directly and therefore other methods have had to be sought.

One of which involves studying the rotation curves of the galaxies. These analyses can be done individually or as a group with other curves of a similar nature according to the universal rotation curve (URC) method and is a good way to gain information on dark matter. 

The interesting thing about this research is that it’s the first time the URC method’s been used to obtain results from LSBs. As explained by Salucci, “there is no discontinuity but gradual and ordered variations starting from the small to the large”. A similar observation was made for spiral galaxies. “This means that we are able to express an ordered trend through a formula which, keeping account of very few parameters, describes how dark matter and luminous matter are distributed”.

 Upon studying the rotation curves of various LSB galaxies, the team revealed some other unexpected findings in “relationships of scale between the properties of the stellar disc and those of the dark matter halo,” said Chiara Di Paolo. One such relationship discovered was that between the stellar disc’s dimensions and the internal region’s dimensions with a constant density of the dark matter halo. They also discovered the relationships found in the LSB were almost coincidental compared to those found in other types of galaxies. The results from this study brings to light a whole new set of scenarios between the two key types of matter which merge to form galaxies.