Pessimists Archive Newsletter

Pessimists Archive Newsletter

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About
The Forgotten War on Beepers
30 years before parents and lawmakers sought to save youth from smartphones via age limits and bans in schools, a similar conversation took place about…
 • 
Louis Anslow
8
Robots Have Been About to Take All the Jobs for 100 Years
We will be exploring the history of fears about technological unemployment.
 • 
Louis Anslow
 and 
Pessimists Archive
10
The Forgotten War on the Walkman
The Sony Walkman is now iconic of the 1980s, eliciting nostalgia for the ‘good old days’ of owning music, rather than renting it.
 • 
Louis Anslow
2
STUDENTS FLEE FIELD AS COMPUTER 'FAD FADES'
The Bismarck Tribune, Bismarck, North Dakota - 20 Jan 1987, Tue • Page 9
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Pessimists Archive
Why Steve Wozniak Dismissed PCs and Steve Jobs Didn't
In March 1976 Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak presented the design of a circuit board for an early home PC at the now legendary ‘Homebrew Computer Club…
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Louis Anslow
6
The 1912 War on Fake Photos
Concern about deceptively edited photos feels like a very modern anxiety, yet a century ago similar worries were being litigated...
 • 
Louis Anslow
The Original AI Doomer: Dr. Norbert Wiener
Long before Geoffrey Hinton and Eliezer Yudkowsky sounded warnings about artificial intelligence, there was Dr.
 • 
Louis Anslow
4
New Year Resolutions of Old: Once Vices Now Virtues
In centuries past, things considered virtuous today; reading, cycling, listening to radio or playing chess were deemed by some as unhealthy vices or a…
 • 
Louis Anslow
2
When the Mac was a Munition
The US Government Classed the Power Mac G4 as a Weapon of War
 • 
Louis Anslow
2
The 1800s Had 'Brainrot' Too!
The Oxford Dictionary just added "brainrot" as its newest official word—a tongue in cheek term for consuming too much short-form social media content.
 • 
Louis Anslow
When the Surgeon General Warned About Pac-Man
This week U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published an op-ed in The New York Times calling for a ‘Warning Label on Social Media Platforms’, this…
 • 
Louis Anslow
2
When the Walkman was Banned
Surrendering an entire sensory input to wearable technology has always elicited strong responses: from Google Glass, to Oculus Rift and most recently…
 • 
Louis Anslow
3
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