The Origins of Science Fiction in the United States

Lowell, Massachusetts was one of the first factory towns in the US where there were these huge mills for making textiles. A wealthy businessman named Francis Cabot Lowell invented a new process for mass producing textiles. He did it partly actually by copying machines that he'd seen in England and no one would give him the specs for the machines. It's much more just like you are doing a repetitive task. And it's sort of, you know, work does kind of become more kind of science fictional in a way.