Pynchon and commuters...

[Gillies, Lindsay]

Commuters use computers...

Luddites:
Luddites were not fearful or irrational about "modern" technology---I think 
we're into a bit of teleological reasoning on this subject.  Luddites were 
reacting to the __Social__ reorganization implicit in the factory system. 
 It was not mechnisation, but centralization of work at the factory site 
that was a threat.  During the preceding period, weaving was carried on as a 
cottage trade, with factors travelling around to gather up the goods.  This 
supported the integrity of the famility household (no commuters!) as well as 
the need for a variety of other work to be conveniently done, particularly 
animal husbandry and agriculture.  This lead to an ideal balance of family 
life, direct sustenance, and cash economy which probably has never been 
equaled since.  (Economic historians need to forget about the concept of 
"progress" right away.)

The graduation of weaving machinery from cottage to water-driven loom 
implied its relocation to the powered site: out of the household, and with a 
concentration of workers.  This was quite correctly perceived as a radical 
change in forces affecting household structure.  What the "entrepreneur" saw 
was not this change, but the smashing of machinery.  It is his vision which 
informs the use of the term Luddite to mean "machine smasher".  In TRP's 
deployment of these themes I see a concern with the effects of the material 
world on psychological and social human ecology, not so much a 
worry/fear/concen/rejection of machinery per se.