Premium – From the FT: Why we should worry about the technology pessimists
By John Thornhill for The Financial Times*
The early use of the radio resulted in mysterious supernatural phenomena, such as talking radiators and stoves, according to newspaper reports of the time. English doctors once feared that excessive use of the bicycle would overtax the nervous system and produce anxious, worn "bicycle faces". Teachers lamented how the replacement of the slide rule by electronic calculators would erode our understanding of mathematical concepts. Besides, what would happen when the batteries ran out?
All these examples of technophobia are taken from the Pessimists Archive, a wonderful collection of "fears about old things when they were new". Anyone concerned about the rise of artificial intelligence today should rummage around this digital record. It is striking how many of our contemporary fears echo previous concerns about the growing supremacy of machines and human obsolescence. It is also reassuring how many of these moral panics have proven spectacularly wrong, appearing almost comical with hindsight.
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