{"id":14380,"date":"2026-08-03T19:40:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T19:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/03\/koohan-paik-mander-and-the-rising-luddite-movement-culture-the-indypendent\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T19:40:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T19:40:58","slug":"koohan-paik-mander-and-the-rising-luddite-movement-culture-the-indypendent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/03\/koohan-paik-mander-and-the-rising-luddite-movement-culture-the-indypendent\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0Koohan Paik-Mander and the Rising Luddite Movement Culture \u2013 The Indypendent"},"content":{"rendered":"

From June 28 to July 5, the Summer of Ludd flourished in and around Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. The weeklong offline festival of public participatory programming \u2014 including teach-ins, art builds, and community games \u2014 was organized by the technocritical Neo-Luddite movement and drew more than 1,000 participants throughout the week.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Inspired by the Luddites of early 19th-century England \u2014\u00a0a labor movement of skilled textile workers who smashed new machines to protect themselves from exploitation \u2014\u00a0the Neo-Luddites have brought the spirit of technocriticism to the 21st century by rejecting digital technology for its harmful effects and opting instead for analog methods of social connection.<\/em><\/p>\n

Koohan Paik-Mander advised the core organizers of the Summer of Ludd throughout its conception, planning process, and execution.<\/em><\/p>\n

A demilitarization and environmental activist in the Asia-Pacific region since the early 2000s, Paik-Mander is a co-founder of the Tech Critics Network. Her forthcoming book, <\/em>Digitizing the Sacred, synthesizes the seminal experiences of her life that have informed her Luddite position. These include growing up in the margins of Empire in Korea and Guam, being married to an AI and drone designer for Reagan\u2019s Strategic Defense Initiative, as one of thousands of artists displaced from San Francisco during the 1990s heyday of techno-utopian fever, mobilizing in Asia against the destructive digitization of warfare, and most recently as an advisor to Summer of Ludd.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Indypendent spoke with Paik-Mander after her keynote speech at the festival\u2019s academic conference on Luddism in the 21st century. We discussed the broader context surrounding the Neo-Luddite movement, and what\u2019s next for Luddism.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Indypendent<\/em><\/strong>: How are you feeling about Luddism these days?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re on the map now. Today, The Economist<\/em> came out with a very supportive and understanding article. It was short, but it wasn\u2019t glib. What that means is that we\u2019re on the map globally, and that we\u2019re in the global cultural consciousness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing more frightening to Silicon Valley than the specter of mobs of people getting offline. Because that means we\u2019re off of their turf and on our turf, where they\u2019ve got no power.<\/p>\n

What exactly scares Silicon Valley about mobs of people being offline?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You ever play sports? Sometimes you play a home game, sometimes you play away, and it\u2019s always an advantage to play on your own turf. The same goes for warfare, and it\u2019s the same thing with analog and digital.<\/p>\n

Analog is the human turf. Digital is the oligarchs\u2019 turf, and they have no power over us when we\u2019re connected in an analog existence. The oligarchs know that already \u2014\u00a0but not enough of us know it yet. Once we do, we\u2019ll have a superpower: our analog humanity.<\/p>\n

\n

There\u2019s nothing more frightening to Silicon Valley than the specter of mobs of people getting offline. Because that means we\u2019re off of their turf and on our turf, where they\u2019ve got no power.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In its purest form, this superpower is the spontaneous and unrestricted cross-pollination of ideas and energies. Our imagination is limitless. Once we go online, however, we\u2019re limited to tiny, tiny boxes and drop-down menus. These options, which Silicon Valley engineers prescribed to us, have deliberately predetermined conclusions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the difference between being a sovereign human being and being colonized digitally, between vibing and having algorithms direct you. The latter is akin to the experience of colonization, if not being colonization itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I grew up in the colony of Guam, whose people are subjects of the United States. There\u2019s a series of laws, structures, institutions, educational concepts, culture, and language imposed on its people. It\u2019s the same with Silicon Valley, except that the big tech companies are doing that to everybody on Earth. How can you be empowered in who you are, your history, and your identity, when the internet truncates everything that came before?<\/p>\n

This truncation happens through the narrative that if it doesn\u2019t exist online, it doesn\u2019t exist at all. That narrative is what rules the preposterous existence that we\u2019ve been made to live under this digital colonization.<\/p>\n

That narrative seems to be an ideology that exposes its own falsity. When these platforms convey that things have to be online to be real, they reveal the source of their power \u2014 users staying online \u2014 while trying to conceal it. That ideology also suggests the truth that most real things are actually offline.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s this concept called digital twinning or digital twins, and it\u2019s used in the military. It\u2019s when you create a digital space that is an analog \u2014 pardon the pun \u2014 to the analog space it represents.<\/p>\n

The Blue Angel jets that fly through the air, for example, aren\u2019t looking out the window \u2014\u00a0they\u2019re looking at a screen that\u2019s the digital twin of how they\u2019re moving forward. The screen in a Tesla, too. These are digital twins of reality.<\/p>\n

When you spend time in a digital twin, it\u2019s like a video game where you\u2019re manipulating the machine and not reality. The danger in that is that we don\u2019t control the digital twins \u2014 the big tech companies do.<\/p>\n

This gets dangerous when Palantir creates digital twins for government agencies to skirt their intended regulations. They know that anytime they create a digital twin of anything, they\u2019re suddenly in charge. It\u2019s their turf. It\u2019s no longer analog, and it\u2019s no longer public \u2014\u00a0now it\u2019s privatized, non-transparent, and non-democratic.<\/p>\n

Back to the analog superpower \u2014 what\u2019s the relationship between an individual refusing to use certain digital technologies, entire communities going offline, and tangible political change on a greater scale? Is individual and collective refusal the foundation for further political action?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s ironic and gives me a bit of glee is that even if people are rejecting digital technology for completely personal and apolitical reasons, their preference to be offline still cuts into the profits of Silicon Valley. So in a certain sense, it doesn\u2019t matter much if they\u2019re politically aware or not \u2014 as long as it catches on.<\/p>\n

Luddism will grow, and [Silicon Valley] will respond by using money to lure the masses into continuing to give up our data. I foresee them offering people money in exchange for people spending a certain amount of time online. Most people will think it\u2019s just free money!<\/p>\n

But the cash that they\u2019ll give is a pittance compared to the power and control that they\u2019ll gain aggregating and reconfiguring our data so that it can be used to target advertising and lobbying, sway elections, and push certain policies.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s obvious that the United States is going in an authoritarian direction, and there\u2019s no better technological expression of authoritarianism than digital technology \u2014\u00a0it centralizes control. If people still think that it\u2019s a democratizing force, wake up and look around.<\/p>\n

All I\u2019ve seen in the last 40 years is a drastic, steady acceleration of inequity. Control is centralized in Silicon Valley: Of the 10 richest individuals on the whole planet, eight of them are in Silicon Valley. That alone tells you that this technology is not a democratizing force.<\/p>\n

Digital technology has changed significantly over the past few decades. Newer devices and apps appear to foster democratization and greater autonomy by giving users seemingly unlimited freedom, despite confining them to the digital world. What is this illusion doing, and how does it conceal what you consider to be an authoritarian and anti-democratic centralization of control?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It just shows how deft and sophisticated this sinister technology is \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s a master of illusion, and one of its cornerstones is the capacity for simulacra. It\u2019s the idea of a digital twin again: we\u2019re given a digital twin of democracy, except that it\u2019s not democracy at all. While the digital world looks like everything that we hold dear, it\u2019s exactly the opposite. It\u2019s Silicon Valley\u2019s evil world.<\/p>\n

The strength of a digital network is based on the number of its users. Airbnb, for example, has over 40 million users in the United States. That\u2019s a lot of power they hold just from the sheer quantity of their users.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the users of these online platforms are made to feel as if they\u2019re active members of different communities \u2014\u00a0while in reality we\u2019re objects and not subjects. We\u2019re categorized, sliced and diced, run through AI, and manipulated. We feel like we exercise agency by joining online communities, but they\u2019re just digital twins, simulacra.<\/p>\n

And again, this digital technology has a military genesis. The capacity for illusion is one of the most powerful tools in war, and Silicon Valley is waging a war against us right now. They\u2019re imposing a fog of war on us \u2014 their enemies \u2014 so that we don\u2019t understand what\u2019s up or what\u2019s down. At the same time, thanks to constant surveillance, they see us clearly.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re in their digital twins, thinking that we\u2019re in reality, while we\u2019re in fact being culturally and cognitively ambushed and attacked. It\u2019s a massacre. It\u2019s cognitive genocide.<\/p>\n

The Summer of Ludd was the most moving experience of my entire life \u2014 it was beautiful to see so many people experience joy they had never experienced before by simply being back home in their humanity with others. It\u2019s in our DNA.<\/p>\n

Even though this is the first generation that was raised with this digital technology, the idea of a \u201cdigital native\u201d is a misnomer. We\u2019re not digital natives \u2014\u00a0we\u2019re human beings, we\u2019re natives of Mother Earth, and we must go back to our ancestors to understand who we are as human beings. Right now, we\u2019re under occupation by Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

At the Summer of Ludd, I felt that there was room for more diversity \u2014 racially, generationally, and socioeconomically. While it makes sense that privilege can make it easier to go offline, it also seems like the responsibility of those who have an easier time getting offline to take the first step and create spaces that intentionally bring others in. What do you think about diversity in Luddism \u2014 how can it become a more diverse and inclusive movement?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In revolutions, it is often the elite class that has the privilege to learn and study history and then the responsibility to bring their learnings to the masses. That\u2019s what we need to do here, and the masses will be happy to join in. Nobody wants to be a digital slave, and working-class people are suffering the most and will be the first to fall into the big heap of discarded humanity if Silicon Valley has its way.<\/p>\n

That being said, it\u2019s true that the most privileged can lead Luddism, simply because they\u2019re able to give up more. But Luddism is for everyone \u2014 people are spontaneously erupting into their own creative spaces, and I think that diversity is just going to happen. Most people find being offline irresistible.<\/p>\n

People are fed up \u2014\u00a0people are fed up with the AI business, and people are fed up with data centers. Because this technology pervades every nook and cranny of human existence and civilization, every nook and cranny is disgusted, and people will respond accordingly.<\/p>\n

Everyone will respond according to whatever suits their particular lifestyle and inclination. That could be mutual aid; it could be theater \u2014 I know that a theater company will probably rise out of this, because these guys have written so many plays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, while there will be more radical groups, even the most seemingly benign pushback is still significant because it means being offline, and that itself is radical. That\u2019s the worst nightmare for Silicon Valley, because then they\u2019ve got nothing to hook you.<\/p>\n

Despite the non-democratic nature of digital technology, social movements of all kinds \u2014 environmental, antiwar, and even technocritical movements like Luddism \u2014 have used digital technology to their advantage. How have you seen the use of digital technology in organizing evolve, and how can we rescue the potentially beneficial aspects of these technologies from their harmful effects?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty hardcore in my position \u2014\u00a0I believe that it\u2019s not possible to do so. What we think of as the beneficial aspects of digital technology are merely elements of a technology that is primarily a weapon that is being used against us. In the end, even those seemingly beneficial aspects will be used to harm us.<\/p>\n

I also don\u2019t think people understand that there is no such thing as truly secure communication online. The owners of a platform can promise that they won\u2019t violate their users, sure, but what happens when they go out of business? All of their data can be sold to another company, or the military, and used for unthinkable acts of evil.<\/p>\n

This is one reason why I\u2019m an abolitionist, an absolute abolitionist.<\/p>\n

What do you mean by \u201cabolitionist\u201d in this context?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m an abolitionist of digital technology, which is the technology that rose up at the beginning of the Cold War in the wake of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki \u2014\u00a0 that\u2019s its DNA, that\u2019s its genesis. Those are the values that it carries with it, and we don\u2019t want that in our world.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Pok\u00e9mon was all the rage, and all the kids were taking pictures everywhere of Pok\u00e9mon. Last year, all those pictures, all those images taken by children, were sold to a company that designs targeting guidance technology for killer drones.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so sinister \u2014 innocent children being used as pawns in this genocide industry. That wasn\u2019t part of the deal! But what it shows us is when we get online, everything we do can and will be used against us. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not even in our lifetime. But it will certainly be used against our species, because this data never goes away.<\/p>\n

We both have phones, we both use email, and right now we\u2019re talking on Zoom. What does being a digital technology abolitionist mean in practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s very similar to being a climate activist and taking airplanes. You must have an analysis of the actions you\u2019re taking. But I do shudder when I have to make a Zoom call, and I do shudder when I have to take an airplane. I shudder, but it\u2019s better than having no awareness.<\/p>\n

And as we all gain awareness together, we\u2019re all getting on the same page. Right now we\u2019ve got an anti-climate, anti-human, anti-Earth administration in the White House. But we\u2019re talking, honing our analysis, and using this time to get on the same page.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, this movement is growing. A marketing website for new products cited Luddism as the fastest-growing cultural movement in the United States right now. Soon they\u2019ll start designing more dumbphones and getting on the capitalistic anti-tech bandwagon. It\u2019s great, in a way, but it\u2019s also terrible because it\u2019s commodified and consumerist.<\/p>\n

Still, they called Luddism the fastest-growing cultural movement in the United States \u2014 and Summer of Ludd was created through Zoom. We would have much preferred to meet in person, because that\u2019s the kind of people we are, but we used Zoom.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just about having an awareness and working toward analog alternatives, which I think is a noble cause. In drawing so many people without using social media, Summer of Ludd was courageous and visionary. We can do it. We have to keep going.<\/p>\n

What are some choices you make in your personal life as a digital technology abolitionist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When computers were first brought in the 90s and took my office space in San Francisco, because I had witnessed the military genesis of this technology, I was famous for not accepting anything. When the smartphone came out in 2007, I was horrified.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a super late adopter. It\u2019s not about what I\u2019m doing to get off these technologies \u2014 I\u2019m staying off until the very last minute. I didn\u2019t get a smartphone until a job forced me to, and I still have a landline. I moved to a part of Hawaii that\u2019s famous for not having any Wi-Fi or any cell phone service or anything.<\/p>\n

I steer my life in an analog direction. I have no apps on my phone. I don\u2019t even put phone numbers in my phone \u2014 I memorize all my friends\u2019 phone numbers by heart. I always use cash.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s imagine a twenty-year-old who has grown up with digital technology. What would you recommend for such a person who wants to resist this technology while feeling the need to have a phone, computer, and email for their day-to-day life?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I can advise people based on my own experience, but it\u2019s harder to say how others should practice Luddism. Instead, I recommend the wonderful research being done by Damian Thomas, Logan Lane, and others. They\u2019re good intermediaries: they see how I do things and then make adaptations that speak to their own people. I\u2019m more of an advisor \u2014 I know Luddism is possible because that\u2019s how I live my life, but it looks different for everyone and especially across age groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk more about the Summer of Ludd. What were your expectations for the week? How were they met?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It exceeded all my expectations. I\u2019ve been organizing anti-tech events for the past 15 years, and I\u2019m used to being Luddite-shamed and people not being interested, but the Summer of Ludd met the moment. With the dystopian state of AI and technology-induced alienation, the organizers knew that it had to be this year, even though it felt like an impossible feat to pull off. But there were so many people, so many volunteers, and so we went for it.<\/p>\n

Back in 2025, I helped organize a \u201cluddite camp\u201d where 10 people who were serious about Luddism came together to discuss the movement. Everyone had a different background and approach \u2013\u00a0lobbying, policy work in D.C., hyperlocal Luddite Clubs in New York, anti-military efforts.<\/p>\n

We talked about a hypothetical Summer of Ludd. I loved the idea, but I didn\u2019t know if we were serious about it \u2014\u00a0I thought the plan was going to peter out. But when two of the core organizers decided to take time off from college to work on the Summer of Ludd, I knew it would meet the moment. You could feel the power and the momentum. I was in Hawaii, but I could feel it all the way from New York.<\/p>\n

I realized Summer of Ludd was going to be even bigger when I saw Gowanus, the Luddites\u2019 \u201cspokespuppet,\u201d being interviewed by Hasan Minhaj \u2014 they hit the ball out of the park. The next day, NPR had \u201cluddite\u201d as their word of the week, and I knew that Summer of Ludd had legs and it\u2019s running. Even so, I didn\u2019t expect it to be this good. It was incredible. It was heaven.<\/p>\n

And right now was the perfect moment for the festival because Gen Z is going to college and thinking and talking together about our digital technology crisis.<\/p>\n

How important was the idea of public space for the Summer of Ludd?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I originally wanted us to have the festival in an old church that had been turned into a disco in the \u201980s \u2014 I thought it would be perfect. But one organizer told me that it needed to happen in public space. And I didn\u2019t really understand.<\/p>\n

Now I get it. Having the Summer of Ludd at Tompkins Square Park allowed passersby to observe the festivities, participate in the events, and learn about Luddism. It was a wonderful way of helping our movement cut across socioeconomic strata.<\/p>\n

Having been a digital technology abolitionist for decades, how would you contextualize Summer of Ludd in the broader evolution of technocritical organizing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a miracle \u2014 a historic milestone. Your generation will be remembered for this, with gratitude. You\u2019re the freedom fighters of the oppressed, brainwashed, and mind-occupied people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

[The Neo-Luddites] are the freedom fighters of the oppressed, brainwashed, and mind-occupied people.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Maybe I\u2019m speaking in the afterglow of amazing joy. There are certainly going to be people taking us down, undermining us, and infiltrating us \u2014 we\u2019re talking big, big money. The greatest wealth in human history is at stake, and these people are heartless and will stop at nothing.<\/p>\n

There is going to be a rocky road ahead, and we need to tread forward with love, because that is our superpower.<\/p>\n

You said that the Summer of Ludd met the moment. What about Gen Z makes them particularly well-positioned to resist the nefariousness of digital technology?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a boomer, and I\u2019ve talked to all the generations that have come after me. I talked to Gen X; they didn\u2019t get it. I talked to millennials; they didn\u2019t get it. Gen Z are the first generation to have had this technology since birth, in living memory, and that has coincided with the fact that they\u2019re in college now, with Trump\u2019s deregulation, and with the rise of AI. It\u2019s all those things coming together.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m 65 years old, and I have been completely dismissed on Luddism \u2014 an issue that is existential for humanity \u2014 for my entire life. So I appreciate that there\u2019s a generation who finally understands. I feel like I\u2019ve come home. I\u2019ve been waiting my whole life for you guys to be born. I\u2019m not kidding.<\/p>\n

The prevailing narrative around digital technology seems to recognize some of its harmful effects without adopting the explicitly technocritical framework that you\u2019ve synthesized so clearly. How can young people bring technocriticism deeper into the discursive mainstream?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I feel it happening naturally, because I think compartments of people\u2019s minds are being opened up. What\u2019s so great about the Summer of Ludd is that it has emboldened every generation all around the world \u2014 I\u2019ve seen stories about it in India, Brazil, and South Africa. Because of Luddism\u2019s colorfulness, joy, and vibrancy, the movement is unlocking mental compartments that people never knew they could access.<\/p>\n

Questioning technology is like questioning God \u2014\u00a0our relationship to technology is one of worship. What\u2019s critical here is that we\u2019re finally gaining the agency to question technology in our own way. That never happened before, and I think this agency will grow into a sophisticated technocritical canon of works.<\/p>\n

\n

Questioning technology is like questioning God \u2014\u00a0our relationship to technology is one of worship.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We\u2019re at the beginning of the movement for the next century, and Summer of Ludd kicked it off. It\u2019s historic, as I\u2019ve said before, and I\u2019m so proud to be a part of it. Luddism is catching the wave of anti-tech sentiment, and we need to deftly ride it to shore with a keen awareness of reality that cuts through Silicon Valley\u2019s fog of war.<\/p>\n\n

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From June 28 to July 5, the Summer of Ludd flourished in and around Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. 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