user avatar
Pessimists Archive
@PessimistsArc
Fear of new things in the past. Exploring pessimism and panic through the ages. Curated by @louisanslow - Substack:
Posts
  • Pinned
    user avatar
    Stoking fears of mass job loss from automation is good way to tank consumer sentiment, which is good way to crash economy, which is good way to cause mass unemployment Could this self-fulfilling doomsday prophecy have been a bigger factor in Great Depression than we’ve realized?
  • user avatar
    1798: First Vaccination Developed 💉 1808 1818 1828 1838 1848 1858 1868 1878 1888 1898 1908 🕰 223 YEARS 🕰 1918 1928 1938 1948 1958 1968 1978 1988 1998 2008 2018 2021: “I am going to wait and see!” 🤓☝️
  • user avatar
    iPhone was released on this day 12 years ago
    00:00
  • user avatar
    Germany’s anti-nuclear power stance will be seen as one of the biggest geopolitical blunders of the 21st century. (clipping 2011)
  • user avatar
    2020: “Too much phone” 1985: “Too much gaming” 1950: “Too many comics” 1863: “Too much reading”
  • user avatar
    📺 1983 debate about home PC, with comparisons to hula hoop fad. Guy on right says they’ll go mainstream “when we have several million machines interconnected” (the internet!) Guy on left dismisses prediction: “THAT WON’T WORK”
    00:00
    MIT CSAIL
  • user avatar
    November 20th 1918 December 7th 1918
  • user avatar
    Regis dismisses the ‘iPod Phone’ hours before Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone
    00:00
  • user avatar
    2024: Jon Stewart asks head of FTC how BigTech was allowed to get so big 2012: Jon Stewart laughs at Facebook for buying ‘lame’ app called Instagram
    00:00
    Alec Stapp
    IFP
  • user avatar
    BREAKING: Republicans Confirm Anti-Vax Conspiracy Theorist to Run Nation's Health Systems Details: rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
  • user avatar
    2017: Are Smartphones Making Us Stupid? 2008: Is Google Making Us Stupid? 1884: Are Books Making Us Stupid?
  • user avatar
    In 1961 it was predicted that by 1971 most unskilled jobs would be gone.
    00:55
    Yuval Noah Harari: we have no idea what to teach young people that will still be relevant in 20 years
  • user avatar
    Things blamed on radio (From 1920s to 1940s) - Bad economy - Poor grades - Robbery - Dead birds - Dirigible explosions - Broken windows - Fights - Rain - Snow - Drought - Gun deaths - Bad skin - Jail breaks - Unemployment of blind - Blue, green and pink water
    00:00
  • user avatar
    Response Alexander Graham Bell received when trying to sell his telephone patent to a telegraph company for $100,000