The Impact of Automation from the Luddites to AI (DHP-H221)

Spring 2026 · DHP H221 · Tufts University · 3 credits · Undergraduate

This course traces the long historical arc of mechanization of labor, from the first industrial machines of the 18th century to the rise of artificial intelligence in the 21st. It explores how successive technological revolutions transformed production, labor, and value creation—from textile mills and armories to assembly lines, mainframes, and cloud data centers. Through key episodes in industrial and information history, students will analyze how economic ideas, management systems, and political institutions evolved in response to automation and technological change. Each week combines discussion of primary texts and classic works in economic and social thought. Readings move chronologically from Adam Smith’s division of labor and Charles Babbage’s analysis of machinery to the rise of mass production, computing, global value chains, and AI. Students will engage directly with the thinkers and engineers who reshaped production processes—as well as the social and economic theorists who tried to understand the impact of physical and intellectual automation—culminating in contemporary debates over automation and AI.

Course codes: DHP-H221

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