Welcome to REDUNDANT, a project by Pessimists Archive exploring the history of fears about technological unemployment. We will be publishing 10 posts…
and
The Inspiration for Dune's Butlerian Jidhad
3
Hear Article Reading: DARWIN AMONG THE MACHINESListen now (10 min) | 1863 Letter to an Editor from Samuel Butler

February 2023

Typewritten love letters were called the most “cold-blooded, mechanical, unromantic production imaginable"

January 2023

📏 Breaking the Rules Concern about Chat-GPT kicked off the year with NYC School District blocking it on school computers. This brought to mind protests…
The article "The Typewriter in Social Correspondence" published in 1898, argues that the use of typewriters for personal correspondence will become more…
This article - written in 1984 - discusses the decline in popularity of the slide rule and its replacement by electronic calculators and computers. The…
Banning Smartphones, Social Media and AI Like ChatGPT is Stupid
1
190 years ago a guy had a nightmare about the 21st Century

December 2022

Virtues of today - like reading books and cycling - were considered vices in the past.
A recent episode of the Ezra Klein Show about our relationship to time mentioned an ancient quote lamenting sun dials. After some Googling, we found it…

September 2022

Thanks for reading Pessimists Archive Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.