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Techno-Negative: A Long History of Refusing the Machine
A radical history of technology told through acts of resistance, not progress
The history of technology is often told as a history of progress, moving optimistically and inevitably from one emancipatory invention to the next. Techno-Negative turns this story on its head, taking us on a journey to the critical junctures where people have pointedly rejected and tried to undo, rather than adopt, new technologies. Beginning with Archimedes’s decision to destroy his own war machines, this book explores the will to negate technology as a deep—but persistently condemned—current in history.
As he presents a new theory of technological power, Thomas Dekeyser argues that technologies, never neutral, operate as “ontological policing,” drawing the boundaries of humanness as they are unequally leveraged by select groups. Looking beyond the Luddites to medieval monks banning tools, seventeenth-century loom burners, revolutionary lantern smashers, and computer arsonists, Dekeyser shows how people have long recognized and resisted the machine as a violent, sometimes deadly force implicated in defining who counts as human and whose lives (and ways of life) are worth saving.
Against the ubiquitous demands to reform or accelerate technological “advancement” that have failed to disrupt our present, Dekeyser proposes a spirited alternative: abolition. He challenges us to rethink the terms of our technological present and future. In a time when Big Tech grows increasingly enmeshed with authoritarian control, Techno-Negative is a conceptual declaration, and source of inspiration, for those searching for a new paradigm of technological politics.
The history of technology is often told as a history of progress, moving optimistically and inevitably from one emancipatory invention to the next. Techno-Negative turns this story on its head, taking us on a journey to the critical junctures where people have pointedly rejected and tried to undo, rather than adopt, new technologies. Beginning with Archimedes’s decision to destroy his own war machines, this book explores the will to negate technology as a deep—but persistently condemned—current in history.
As he presents a new theory of technological power, Thomas Dekeyser argues that technologies, never neutral, operate as “ontological policing,” drawing the boundaries of humanness as they are unequally leveraged by select groups. Looking beyond the Luddites to medieval monks banning tools, seventeenth-century loom burners, revolutionary lantern smashers, and computer arsonists, Dekeyser shows how people have long recognized and resisted the machine as a violent, sometimes deadly force implicated in defining who counts as human and whose lives (and ways of life) are worth saving.
Against the ubiquitous demands to reform or accelerate technological “advancement” that have failed to disrupt our present, Dekeyser proposes a spirited alternative: abolition. He challenges us to rethink the terms of our technological present and future. In a time when Big Tech grows increasingly enmeshed with authoritarian control, Techno-Negative is a conceptual declaration, and source of inspiration, for those searching for a new paradigm of technological politics.
242 pages, Paperback
First published March 24, 2026
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September 14, 2026
Izredno zanimiva knjiga, ki jo bo treba še kdaj prebrati. Ne le zato, ker za razliko od današnjega zagotavljanja, da je "UI neizbežna" prikazuje dolgo zgodovino zavlačevanja, reguliranja, zavračanja in celo uničevanja tehnologije. Začne z Grki, ki so regulirali razvoj tehnologije, da ne bi porušili svoje ideje demokracije in človeškosti (tehnologija ne sme delati namesto sužnjev, ker so sužnji po naravi "orodje") - kar nato pravzaprav odmeva v zgodovini. Dekeyser to imenuje "ontološki nadzor": tehnologija ni nevtralna, temveč z njo vzpostavljamo hierarhije med ljudmi in celo samo mejo, kdo sodi med ljudi in kdo ne.
Če je v 18. stoletju razvoj tehnologije še regulirala Cerkev, ki je v tehnoloških igračkah videla imitacijo boga in zato demonsko, in pozneje državne oblasti, ki so celo same uničevale predilne stroje ipd., da ti ne bi odvzeli najnižjim slojem dela, se že z obsežno kolonizacijo razmerja postavijo na glavo - zdaj kolonizatorji dokazujejo, da jih njihova evropska napredna tehnologija dela večvredne od primitivnih domačinov, ki si komaj zaslužijo naziv človeka.
In tako začne s kapitalizmom država ščititi tehnologije lastnikov, uničujejo pa jih delavci, ki jim jemlje agencijo, človeškost in delo (ludisti). Ko pozneje tehnološke sisteme vzpostavlja država (recimo javno razsvetljavo), ti postanejo vedno bolj tudi sistemi nadzora. V zadnjih poglavjih avtor prikaže skupnosti, ki so skušale izstopiti iz tehnološkega sveta, in tehnološke teroriste C.L.O.D.O. (Comité Liquidant ou Détournant les Ordinateurs), za katere sem prvič slišal in ki so v osemdesetih uničevali računalniške centre, kot simbole tehnološkega nadzora.
Skratka, knjiga, ki sijajno osvetli precej neznana poglavja tehnološke zgodovine in skuša s tem prevrednotiti nas odnos do (neizbežnosti) tehnološkega "napredka". Problemi knjige so pa vsekakor v deloma izredno teoretično domišljeni, a nekako z materialno, sociološko in politično zgodovino nepovezani razpravi, zlasti v drugi polovici knjige (uničevalce javne razsvetljave v Parizu skuša razlagati s psihoanalizo; pri CLODO se spusti v dolgo heideggerjansko niansiranje, za katero pravzaprav ne vemo, ali je res relevantna, saj nam zgodovinsko zelo malo utemelji ali razloži). Ta razprava nato v zadnjih dveh poglavjih preide v nekakšen filozofski, že skoraj religiozni esej o prihodnosti človeškosti in človeka, ki je spet politično in zgodovinsko precej umaknjena v svoj slonokoščeni stolp.
Marx bi rekel, da knjiga rabi več materializma. In jaz se tokrak absolutno strinjam z Marxom. Sicer pa z zgodovinskega stališča res vznemirljivo in zanimivo branje ob ravno pravem trenutku.
Če je v 18. stoletju razvoj tehnologije še regulirala Cerkev, ki je v tehnoloških igračkah videla imitacijo boga in zato demonsko, in pozneje državne oblasti, ki so celo same uničevale predilne stroje ipd., da ti ne bi odvzeli najnižjim slojem dela, se že z obsežno kolonizacijo razmerja postavijo na glavo - zdaj kolonizatorji dokazujejo, da jih njihova evropska napredna tehnologija dela večvredne od primitivnih domačinov, ki si komaj zaslužijo naziv človeka.
In tako začne s kapitalizmom država ščititi tehnologije lastnikov, uničujejo pa jih delavci, ki jim jemlje agencijo, človeškost in delo (ludisti). Ko pozneje tehnološke sisteme vzpostavlja država (recimo javno razsvetljavo), ti postanejo vedno bolj tudi sistemi nadzora. V zadnjih poglavjih avtor prikaže skupnosti, ki so skušale izstopiti iz tehnološkega sveta, in tehnološke teroriste C.L.O.D.O. (Comité Liquidant ou Détournant les Ordinateurs), za katere sem prvič slišal in ki so v osemdesetih uničevali računalniške centre, kot simbole tehnološkega nadzora.
Skratka, knjiga, ki sijajno osvetli precej neznana poglavja tehnološke zgodovine in skuša s tem prevrednotiti nas odnos do (neizbežnosti) tehnološkega "napredka". Problemi knjige so pa vsekakor v deloma izredno teoretično domišljeni, a nekako z materialno, sociološko in politično zgodovino nepovezani razpravi, zlasti v drugi polovici knjige (uničevalce javne razsvetljave v Parizu skuša razlagati s psihoanalizo; pri CLODO se spusti v dolgo heideggerjansko niansiranje, za katero pravzaprav ne vemo, ali je res relevantna, saj nam zgodovinsko zelo malo utemelji ali razloži). Ta razprava nato v zadnjih dveh poglavjih preide v nekakšen filozofski, že skoraj religiozni esej o prihodnosti človeškosti in človeka, ki je spet politično in zgodovinsko precej umaknjena v svoj slonokoščeni stolp.
Marx bi rekel, da knjiga rabi več materializma. In jaz se tokrak absolutno strinjam z Marxom. Sicer pa z zgodovinskega stališča res vznemirljivo in zanimivo branje ob ravno pravem trenutku.
Read
July 29, 2026A book my reading-friend Marian and I disagreed on. She stopped after a page or ten, decrying it as too pedantic to her taste. I liked the ontological claim of technology, in which technologists define what humanity or togetherness is. In a time when AI is constantly proclaimed to be conscious, when it is merely technology mimicking humanity ontological policing is a useful concept. Though the policing bit is probably not helpful for understanding. Its more how technologies define concepts; ontological reframing perhaps.
August 4, 2026
What an absolutely super inspiring text. And for me it seems to come at the perfect time as my transition from tech-optimist to techno-pessimist (tech, techno, whatev) has been completed but has had no theoretical framework to cite and rely upon before I picked up this text, and I think I am now firmly in the techno-negative/abolitionist adjacent camp!
For my Second Life folks just a brief note: my retirement from documenting intentional communities in the virtual world has nothing to do with this transition. I still admire and love all the people I met in SL and my focus has always been on the serendipitous discovery of this vast universe and its inhabitants. Because there is plenty to critique and possibly smash in that virtual world and how it is run (I have no problem when folks would act in SL like the Luddites or more aptly perhaps the CLODO movement as it is mentioned in the book = Committee for the Liquidation or Subversion of Computers.
Ok, digressing again, all over the place, what a review, I apologize: my little corner on this TECHNOLOGICAL platform is mine and I fill it as I see fit.
The book at hand is - in contrast - a tightly focused and at times dense text: as someone who has not read nearly enough philosophy as I wish I had, the way Thomas Dekeyser uses the term human (homo) in its various forms, was frankly new to me. Mind blown? Yes: I have learned that Michel Foucault has introduced an anti-humanism which makes total sense to me and it is a big part of Dekeyser’s argument. Spoiler alert: the definition of what “human” means depends on power structures at any given time or place and can and will constantly shift.
And so does the rejection of technology, or rather the reason for that rejection: ye olde Greek elites did not need a contraption some inventor tried to sell them when it was more expensive than slave labor which was abundant. Medieval church leaders felt that technology was uncouth for believers because only God should be able to do stuff and we Earthlings should look up to him in awe, a concept threatened by technological innovation.
And then the Luddites in early capitalism associated machinery with more efficient exploitation of the worker and we know all that but did you know that in the late 16th century city officials in Hamburg ALSO destroyed very similar machinery?
Mind blown again!
And so on and so on and then a conclusion that has to be reread many times and totally makes sense to me.
Bonus point and applause for Mr. Dekeyser for mentioning Günther Anders and his “The Obsolescence of the Human” (Die Antiquiertheit des Menschen in German original from 1956) which also blew my mind and I just recently read and then bought his novel “Die molussische Katakombe” (not read yet but so excited about it!).
Alrighty folks, take it from me: get this book and reflect on your relationship to tech. You do NOT want to remain a reformer (“well, tech is agnostic, it is neither good nor bad, it just needs to be properly tamed via reasonable legislation BLABLABLA” SHUT UP!)
Because as Sarah Sharma blurbs the book in the back: “... reform is futile.”
For my Second Life folks just a brief note: my retirement from documenting intentional communities in the virtual world has nothing to do with this transition. I still admire and love all the people I met in SL and my focus has always been on the serendipitous discovery of this vast universe and its inhabitants. Because there is plenty to critique and possibly smash in that virtual world and how it is run (I have no problem when folks would act in SL like the Luddites or more aptly perhaps the CLODO movement as it is mentioned in the book = Committee for the Liquidation or Subversion of Computers.
Ok, digressing again, all over the place, what a review, I apologize: my little corner on this TECHNOLOGICAL platform is mine and I fill it as I see fit.
The book at hand is - in contrast - a tightly focused and at times dense text: as someone who has not read nearly enough philosophy as I wish I had, the way Thomas Dekeyser uses the term human (homo) in its various forms, was frankly new to me. Mind blown? Yes: I have learned that Michel Foucault has introduced an anti-humanism which makes total sense to me and it is a big part of Dekeyser’s argument. Spoiler alert: the definition of what “human” means depends on power structures at any given time or place and can and will constantly shift.
And so does the rejection of technology, or rather the reason for that rejection: ye olde Greek elites did not need a contraption some inventor tried to sell them when it was more expensive than slave labor which was abundant. Medieval church leaders felt that technology was uncouth for believers because only God should be able to do stuff and we Earthlings should look up to him in awe, a concept threatened by technological innovation.
And then the Luddites in early capitalism associated machinery with more efficient exploitation of the worker and we know all that but did you know that in the late 16th century city officials in Hamburg ALSO destroyed very similar machinery?
Mind blown again!
And so on and so on and then a conclusion that has to be reread many times and totally makes sense to me.
Bonus point and applause for Mr. Dekeyser for mentioning Günther Anders and his “The Obsolescence of the Human” (Die Antiquiertheit des Menschen in German original from 1956) which also blew my mind and I just recently read and then bought his novel “Die molussische Katakombe” (not read yet but so excited about it!).
Alrighty folks, take it from me: get this book and reflect on your relationship to tech. You do NOT want to remain a reformer (“well, tech is agnostic, it is neither good nor bad, it just needs to be properly tamed via reasonable legislation BLABLABLA” SHUT UP!)
Because as Sarah Sharma blurbs the book in the back: “... reform is futile.”
August 11, 2026
I enjoyed this a lot. Dekeyser takes the reader along on a journey ranging from Greek inventions and technologies all the way to touching on how AI is shaping our modern day lives. I wasn't always able to follow along, though that is mainly owed to which disciplines I usually read from and work in - I've always felt more at home in methods than in theory, so he lost me with some sections. As a result some explanations and interpretations went over my head entirely and I wished the author could have just described and chronicled the refusals he was writing about more. Like: CLODO? fascinating! I want to read a book about THAT! Still, I appreciated how Dekeyser was able to place each refusal in the larger societal and global scale of things, especially as techno negativity shifted from being carried out by the state to being penalized by it.
Regardless of my own struggles with it, I think this book will be of interest to a broad category of readers. ...though maybe those with less experience in reading dense and wordy academic texts should not be falsely lulled by its low page count ;-)
P.S.: not sure what the two inclusions of Freud were, though. Is this still a thing? The proposed homo-eroticism of lamplighting and related phallic ideas felt rather silly.
Regardless of my own struggles with it, I think this book will be of interest to a broad category of readers. ...though maybe those with less experience in reading dense and wordy academic texts should not be falsely lulled by its low page count ;-)
P.S.: not sure what the two inclusions of Freud were, though. Is this still a thing? The proposed homo-eroticism of lamplighting and related phallic ideas felt rather silly.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.
A fairly extensive history of techno-negativity and the various philosophical and religious influences on various techno-negative communities, this book introduced the relationship between the human and the machine from a different angle than what I have previously seen, showing that it is not a history of "progress" from no technology to more technology to even more technology, and that there have at all times been communities resisting the machine for various reasons.
While there is a chapter dedicated to anticolonialist perspectives, and while the history of the machine as a tool of colonisation and ontological murder is detailed, this book does rely heavily on Western philosophy and history in its recounting and analysis of the history of techno-negativity, which is one point I would criticise, though I am not sure if this might simply be due to a lack of available sources (in English?). However, I would have been very interested in the history of techno-negativity in China, Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and various others empires which are frequently praised as "technologically advanced".
Also, I'm sorry but the author lost some Serious Points whenever he went into psychoanalysis. I simply cannot take you seriously when you completely calmly discuss how fire is a penis, and how people are phobic of the machine because of sexual neuroses. I simply cannot take it seriously. That did not affect my rating though - the above-mentioned point on the very Western perspectives shared in this book is what cost it its final star.
A fairly extensive history of techno-negativity and the various philosophical and religious influences on various techno-negative communities, this book introduced the relationship between the human and the machine from a different angle than what I have previously seen, showing that it is not a history of "progress" from no technology to more technology to even more technology, and that there have at all times been communities resisting the machine for various reasons.
While there is a chapter dedicated to anticolonialist perspectives, and while the history of the machine as a tool of colonisation and ontological murder is detailed, this book does rely heavily on Western philosophy and history in its recounting and analysis of the history of techno-negativity, which is one point I would criticise, though I am not sure if this might simply be due to a lack of available sources (in English?). However, I would have been very interested in the history of techno-negativity in China, Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and various others empires which are frequently praised as "technologically advanced".
Also, I'm sorry but the author lost some Serious Points whenever he went into psychoanalysis. I simply cannot take you seriously when you completely calmly discuss how fire is a penis, and how people are phobic of the machine because of sexual neuroses. I simply cannot take it seriously. That did not affect my rating though - the above-mentioned point on the very Western perspectives shared in this book is what cost it its final star.
March 25, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and the University of Minnesota Press for providing this book as an eARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
This book is a revelation and truly feels timely. Dekeyser crafts a narrative that blends philosophy, history, sociology and geography to give a look at the relationship that people and their environments have with machines. This book is rich with explorations of colonialism, labour, technology and morality and provides the language to explain what it feels like to experience technology. This book also challenges the assumptions that we often make about technological adoption and its inevitability, and why we should challenge those perceptions. This book is perfect for people who enjoy narrative fiction, anyone who has ever lamented the proliferation of technology and anyone who has ever been taught to think about technology in the language of progress. It is truly a great read, whether you are looking to learn something new or gain the language that allows you to think about technology in a more considered way.
This book is a revelation and truly feels timely. Dekeyser crafts a narrative that blends philosophy, history, sociology and geography to give a look at the relationship that people and their environments have with machines. This book is rich with explorations of colonialism, labour, technology and morality and provides the language to explain what it feels like to experience technology. This book also challenges the assumptions that we often make about technological adoption and its inevitability, and why we should challenge those perceptions. This book is perfect for people who enjoy narrative fiction, anyone who has ever lamented the proliferation of technology and anyone who has ever been taught to think about technology in the language of progress. It is truly a great read, whether you are looking to learn something new or gain the language that allows you to think about technology in a more considered way.
August 28, 2026
It was interesting but so droning. Themes and research was very informative.
There's about 30 women referenced and about 190 men.
There's about 30 women referenced and about 190 men.
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