Pessimists Archive

Written in 1832 ‘Of Domestic Novelties At First Condemned” Colburn covers opposition to forks, toothpicks, horse drawn carriages, umbrellas - & awkwardly tobacco and coal. Food for thought RE how to separate irrational pessimism from rational when it comes to risks of new things.

193 years ago Henry Colburn observed:

“objects of the highest importance to mankind, on their first appearance, are slighted and condemned. Posterity smile at the ineptitude of the preceding age, while it becomes familiar with those objects, which that age so eagerly rejected”

Italy has discovered us 🇮🇹

Rolling Stone, 20 years ago:
- There are too many virgins!
- How will Apple keep growing?
- Vaccines cause autism?!?

Happy Birthday Google

For many of your 27 years you were called a lazy vice. Finally you have attained the status of a thoughtful virtue of the good old days.

🥂 🥳

Happy Birthday Google

For many of your 27 years you were called a lazy vice. Finally you have attained the status of a thoughtful virtue of the good old days.

🥂 🥳

1914

The media outlets rightly admonishing RFK Jr. need to reckon with their own roll in his rise to prominence.

In 2005 Rolling Stone and Salon would publish his op-ed ‘Deadly Immunity’ linking vaccines to autism in children, based on tiny - later retracted - British study.

Do you have a fun example of resistance to new things in the past? Reach out! Seeking contributors and collaborators.

Italy has discovered us 🇮🇹

I swear if some of you saw an electric light bulb for the first time you'd be all "its so impractical and expensive, who even has a generator? We just just use cheap, renewable whale oil"

Pessimists Archive educates people on and archives the history of technophobia and moral panics Pessimists Archive is a project to jog our collective memories about the hysteria, technophobia and moral panic that often greets new technologies, ideas and

Pessimists Archive educates people on and archives the history of technophobia and moral panics

See gadgeteer.co.za/pessimists-a...

#conspiracytheory #FUD #technology

“Our forefathers had to carry water in pails; chop their own firewood to keep themselves warm; hew their own homesteads out of wilderness; walk miles to the nearest neighbour to borrow books.” (1928)

Telegraph Doomers of the 19th Century - Part 1 Like the web, telegraphy brought rapid changes in society along with very familiar anxieties and criticisms.

If anyone builds it, everyone dies (global telegraphy) newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/telegraph-...

The RFK Jr. article has its own Wikipedia entry lmao

Rolling Stone, 20 years ago:
- There are too many virgins!
- How will Apple keep growing?
- Vaccines cause autism?!?

Telegraph Doomers of the 19th Century - Part 1 Like the web, telegraphy brought rapid changes in society along with very familiar anxieties and criticisms.

If anyone builds it, everyone dies (global telegraphy) newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/telegraph-...

"Modern technology depletes human cognitive abilities more rapidly than drugs, according to a psychiatric study conducted at King's College, London. And the curse of 'messaging' is to blame." - The Register, 2005 web.archive.org/web/20050424...

They said this about the bicycle in 1893 predicting the "evolution of a round-shouldered, hunched-back race"

They said this about the bicycle in 1893 predicting the "evolution of a round-shouldered, hunched-back race"

A century later, the evidence is in: Automobile Brain is real, and it’s a leading cause of Miserable City Syndrome.

The NYtimes Banned Word Games Before Embracing Them The following newsletter is syndicated from a 2022 BigThink.com article we wrote inspired by The New York Times acquisition of Wordle. In April it was revealed subscribers to The New York Times played...

People are devastated NYT mini crossword was put behind a paywall.

Once upon a time the NYT looked down its nose at word games, refusing to put them in the paper. newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-new-yo...

“Our forefathers had to carry water in pails; chop their own firewood to keep themselves warm; hew their own homesteads out of wilderness; walk miles to the nearest neighbour to borrow books.” (1928)

Defence attorneys for kids love to scapegoat new technologies and trends. The media loves to write about it and lawmakers love to propose ‘solutions’ to the ‘problem.’

Often it is a waste of time, distracting from real problems and solutions to them.

(1977)

I remember 🙄

Good point! and really sad.

See also novels in the 18th century.
Outrage at new ways to tell stories and entertain has always happened.
How Fiction Sparked Outrage in the 18th Century - Magazine share.google/kJIvj6eZRZ4S...