Absolutely drunk college kids.

The leadership of the Luddites were focused. But when you have a crowd of people breaking stuff, there are always the Hooligans. Being England, literally. There are people that don’t really care about the game, only the fight afterward and a large portion of the trouble is caused by these people.

In Greenville NC, it's probably dumbass drunk college kids

That doesn’t seem to mesh with the accounts though. It appears they would target specific machines which they objected to rather than trashing all machines. The argument is also that as they didn’t have the ability to unionize and companies weren’t willing to talk, and strikes would be met with violence, that became…

The problem that every government has had since the beginning of time is that it’s always wealth and power have different rules than not having it. Overthrowing the established power normally doesn’t end well as the new power is typically more corrupt than the old one.

In a Pratchettean turn, the Yakuza are more effective at stopping non-Yakuza crime than the police are.

Japan is funny. It’s like 99.99% super honest people and 0.01% Yazuka.

“Tip generously. I know where you live.”

Functional governments work to ensure that living standards continue to rise for everyone, despite the change in working conditions and industries. This requires governments do a lot of work though, when big societal changes strike like that. Governments don’t like working though, they like cruising on the good old…

We’re not going to make it, are we...

Oh, no, that’s going to be HitchBot.  But we’re not exactly improving our track record...

Or equip them with a S.E.P. field generator. Runs for a century on a standard flashlight battery.

It’s OK! We’ll paint them pink for friendliness and put a little orange flag on them.

You could deliver 80,000 dollars of visible jewelry on one of these in Japan and no one would touch it.

In 5 years...

“I’ve got your groceries, ma’am.”

Wait, they sent little robots scurrying around a college campus, with actual college students living there? And they sent more little robots around LA, to contend with flocks of bored teenagers and irritable hungry folks?

Yes, I think a lot of the Luddites were pretty much thugs that just enjoyed breaking stuff and causing chaos. But they claimed a higher purpose to justify their chaotic tendencies.

When Skynet takes over, I feel this story is going to be exhibit A in the destruction of humanity.

The only solution is to arm the robots.