Looking at headlines from past decades is always entertaining. It's fascinating to see how well (or how poorly) journalists predicted the future, and it's interesting to think about future generations chuckling at the news we're receiving today. And one place that might make you realize just how little we knew about technology in the past is The Pessimists Archive. This site describes itself as “a project to jog our collective memories about the hysteria, technophobia and moral panic that often greets new technologies, ideas and trends.”
“We believe the best antidote to fear of the new is looking back at fear of the old,” the site’s About section states. “Only by looking back at fears of old things when they were new, can we have rational constructive debates about emerging technologies today that avoids the pitfalls of moral panic and incumbent protectionism.”
To learn more about how the Pessimists Archive came about in the first place, we reached out to the project’s creator, Louis Anslow. Louis was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda and share some background information about the archive.
First, we wanted to know what inspired him to launch the project. “A frustration with the cynicism about new technologies and the lack of appreciation for how science and technology has made life so much better than the past,” Louis says.
We were also curious about what it’s been like for Louis to see the site grow so popular. “I thought people would find it interesting, but its early popularity was surprising,” he admitted. “Gwyneth Paltrow follows us on Twitter.”
And as far as how he finds the content that gets shared in the archive, Louis says, “Pessimists Archive would not be possible without online archives that allow you to search newspaper scans as easily as web pages. It allowed me to do the jobs of a team of archival researchers that used to take a long time.”
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We also asked Louis what he believes we can learn from the old newspaper clippings that get shared on Pessimists Archive. “They are a mirror to humanity that show us the irrational fears we can fall prey to and how people with power use those fears to preserve their standing in society,” he told Bored Panda.
Finally, we wanted to know what headlines from today could end up in a Pessimists Archive of the future. “The conversation around Artificial Intelligence causing mass unemployment, and even wiping out humanity – were floated by one of the pioneers of Artificial Intelligence – Norbert Weiner, in the 1950s,” Louis says. So it's likely that we'll continue to mock those who are scared of AI!
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While it might sound silly to be fearful of technology, it’s actually quite common to have worries. So common, in fact, that the term “technophobia” has been coined. (And no, that does not mean a fear of techno music.) According to the Cleveland Clinic, adults and seniors are more likely to develop this specific fear than younger individuals, as we tend to use technology less and less as we age. One study found that 60% of adults between the ages of 55 to 59 use the internet, while only a quarter of those aged 65 to 74 get online. And only a measly 6% of adults 74 and older use the internet.
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