Will machines or new technology put us out of work? Drug topics had a piece about automation. Is it friend or foe? This question has been around for a while.

I also saw an article about Whole Foods increasing with check out areas instead of people, which customers did not like. The justification was to be profitable since having people being paid $15 was making it hard to be profitable.

The term Luddite is derisive for a man whose followers tried to stop English technology. (In the long run they failed, but from 1805 to 1815 or 1816 they had some success) To an extent it depends on how accepted the technology is and if one can use it or not.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/luddite 1805-15; after Ned Ludd, 18th-century Leicestershire worker who originated the idea