Technopeasant

“You would be able to, if only you′d — ” Jim cut him off in mid-grumble. “I know. ‘If only I′d stop being a technopeasant and open my eyes.’ OK, I know I′ve been a technopeasant, but now I want to open my eyes, and I need you to help me do it.”

Being a technopeasant, I took his word for it and bought the rabbit ears for an additional sum. When I got home and uncrated the set, I discovered it had a built-in antenna and that I did not need the extra one.

In his vision people will be divided into two classes; “the Knows” and the “Know-Nots,” the digirati and the technopeasants.

In his other statements it is clear that he regards computer programmers as technopeasants, and this is how many corporations do treat them with programming outsourced to low-wage countries like India.

In a 1981 interview he [Frank Herbert] described himself a “technopeasant”.