Fear of new things in the past. History of resistance to new technologies & ideas. Curated by @louisanslow NEWSLETTER: newsletter.pessimistsarchive…
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2026: The New York Times cites seriously academics who say AI might end the world
1881: The New York Times cites seriously academics who say telegraphy might end the world newsletter.pessimistsarchive…
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"We can be humble and live a good life with the aid of the machines,
or be arrogant and die." - Dr. Norbert Wiener, 1949 newsletter.pessimistsarchive…
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Repeating unfounded fears about technology are often rooted in a misunderstanding of human nature
Better automation doesn’t change human capacity for desire. More realistic videogame violence doesn’t change propensity to harm each other.
Technology changes, humans stay the same
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"We can be humble and live a good life with the aid of the machines,
or be arrogant and die." - Dr. Norbert Wiener, 1949 newsletter.pessimistsarchive…
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Ed Regis wrote seminal book detailing war on 'Golden Rice', in it he notes Golden Rice had to be developed in bomb-proof greenhouses due to level of hostility to GMOs.
amazon.co.uk/Golden-Rice-Imp…
Hundreds of tonnes of Golden Rice are in limbo and could be destroyed following Greenpeace's disastrous court 'win' in the Philippines, which will undermine food security in an entire nation. Here's the latest:
marklynas.org/2024/05/30/int…
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Indeed.
Einstein blamed the Great Depression on automation - likely helping further worsen consumer sentiment by making everyone think the jobs weren’t coming back and their job might be next.
“Just because it came from a scientist, it doesn’t make it scientific….Don’t think that just because you are an alarmist, you are doing any social good.”
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After Einstein blamed the Great Depression on automation, he proposed a ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT to see off the threat of nuclear war in 1945.
He admitted tyranny and oppression was a risk, but said it was not as great a risk of mass death by nuclear war.
cdn.theatlantic.com/media/ar…
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While unions were railing against recorded music, some union members were seeing their wages sky rocket in Hollywood - awkward!
A fun example of when automation empowers individual creatives.
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George Orwell on La Sagrada Família:
"... I went to have a look at the cathedral—a modern cathedral, and one of the most hideous buildings in the world ... I think the Anarchists showed bad taste in not blowing it up ...”
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1992: Columbia Pictures analyst says "Email is fun, but it's a toy" while Jeffrey Katzenberg (@jeffreykWNDR) goes all in on email at Disney.
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RT @TaylorLorenz: At some point we should talk about how anti free speech the legacy media is as a lobbying body.
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Obviously a ridiculous claim! What is the chance that this browser thing will be “the world’s standard interface for electronic information”?
(From Kevin Kelly’s column today of observations from 1994.)
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we need canva to enact a moratorium on text based instagram carousel slides NOW before it’s too late. pace the templatized design frontier
An activist disrupted a Canva AI event in London, calling for a moratorium on data centers and greater public involvement in AI.
The protest was organized by “Pull the Plug,” a group that says it wants ordinary people to have more say in how AI is introduced.
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