Pessimists Archive Newsletter

Pessimists Archive Newsletter

Home
The Archive
Merch
🚲
📖
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
STUDENTS FLEE FIELD AS COMPUTER 'FAD FADES'
The Bismarck Tribune, Bismarck, North Dakota - 20 Jan 1987, Tue • Page 9
 • 
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…
 • 
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
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
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 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
4
The Moon Landing was Opposed by Majority of US
Today marks the 54th anniversary of the moon landing. In retrospect it has almost unanimous support and adoration in the US: pleasing the left as an…
 • 
Louis Anslow
8
© 2025 Pessimists Archive
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture