Pessimists Archive

'Some dont's for the women bicyclist.' A satirical 1895 article commenting on judgemental attitude towards women cyclists.

In 1976 mathematicians came face to face with the first machine aided proof. Reactions were as emotional as they have been recently. newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-1st-ti...

"Don't bend over like Zimmerman. It is not graceful." Arthur Augustus Zimmerman, "The Jersey Skeeter" (1869-1936). One of the first cyclists to license his name for athletic gear.

In 1927 the ‘Keep-The-Air-Clean-On-Sunday Society’ was formed to keep Jazz - and other unholy music - off radio on Sunday.

“They are of no educational value” says superintendent (Berkshire Eagle, 1925)

“They are of no educational value” says superintendent (Berkshire Eagle, 1925)

30s: free legal advice over radio freaks lawyers newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/nyc-once-b... 70s: computer aided proofs freak mathematicians newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-1st-ti... 90s: automated exploit finder freaks security experts newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/before-myt...

3/ 🥛 @pessimistsarc.bsky.social: l’arxiu més gran del món de pànics tecnològics. Què poc que hem avançat! 🤯 #MockingPowerMakingChange 🗓️ 29/10 · 18 h | En el marc del #MozFest i la #BCNOpenTechWeek. 🎫 Entrada gratuïta a la #Conferència4D 🔗https://4d.cat/conferencia/

New technologies pose new risks to people and power. Powerful people are often tasked with insulating society from new risks to people and often use this as a pretext to insulate themselves from the risk to their power. Lesson: powerful people preserve power preaching precaution

How did mathematicians react to 1st computer aided proof in 1976? A few quotes from academics at time: “Down with Oracles! They are not mathematics” “Does not belong to mathematical science” “Ridiculous case of the King’s New Clothes” via new post: newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-1st-ti...

How did mathematicians react to 1st computer aided proof in 1976? A few quotes from academics at time: “Down with Oracles! They are not mathematics” “Does not belong to mathematical science” “Ridiculous case of the King’s New Clothes” via new post: newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-1st-ti...

First time machines mogged mathematicians? 1976. When the ‘four color theorem’ was solved via computer mathematicians like Paul Halmos said: “the present proof relies in effect on an Oracle, and I say down with Oracles! They are not mathematics.”

Unabomber manifesto had AI section Amusingly even Kaczynski couldn’t muster the intellectual arrogance to predict risk to all humankind, calling it unknowable His concern was lack of meaningful work, centralization of power & a ‘soft-liberal’ elite newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-unabom...

Fears the Internet could be ruined by autonomous exploit finding software is not new. In 1995 there was a huge debate about whether open source exploit finding software should be allowed. newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/before-myt...

2026: The New York Times cites seriously academics who say AI might end the world 1881: The New York Times cites seriously academics who say telegraphy might end the world newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/telegraph-...

King Charles jumping on AI doomer bandwagon, he can’t resist a good panic!

This meeting is being organized by the Future of Life Institute TESCREAL doomsday cult. An org that was exposed funding Nazis as a means to an end. They’re dangerous and will do anything to ‘save humanity’ from the end times. expo.se/nyhet/elon-m...

2019: “GPT2 is groundbreaking in two ways. One is its size, says Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s research director. The models “were 12 times bigger, and the dataset was 15 times bigger and much broader” than the previous state-of-the-art AI model”

"The possible consequences of developments in nuclear physics were easier to predict in 1939, than are the possible consequences of gene transfer in 1974." (The Daily Telegraph, 1974)

When elites try to convince you a new technology is a threat to YOU, it is often because it is a threat to THEM

"The art of printing can be of great service in so far as it furthers the circulation of useful & tested books; but it can bring about serious evils… …it will, therefore, be necessary to maintain full control over the printers” - Pope Alexander VI, 1501

I needed some 1920s doomer stuff, naturally came here, and this was right at the top. Thank you for your service.

When a wrong prediction about technological change repeats through history consistently across large groups of people it is a sign a cognitive bias is at play. Example: automation and the lump of labor fallacy newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/robots-hav...

Happy Labour Day! In 1900 child labourers went on strike, novel reading was blamed: “Literary pabulum” dealing with “the rise from poverty to steam yachts” helped one boy convince others they “were being ground beneath the heels of financial despotism”

Wonder if this observed concern about children reading newspapers has little historical evidence because newspaper generally didn’t write negatively about themselves?

1845: Man defends giving kids newspaper “There's a false opinion.. ..in regard to the influence of newspapers upon minds of children. An objection of the most silly character.” OBJECTION: Kids would "learn too much.. ..they'd become dissatisfied with home & want to go forth in world"

When a new technology creates change in society in a similar way to what is replacing, you are going to see repeating psychological, sociological and political patterns. Many lessons to learn in those patterns!

2026: The Eiffel Tower is a romantic symbol of the good old days 1897: The Eiffel Tower is a techno-dystopian vanity project built by a tech-bro engineer newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-eiffel...

2026: The Eiffel Tower is a romantic symbol of the good old days 1897: The Eiffel Tower is a techno-dystopian vanity project built by a tech-bro engineer newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-eiffel...

Behold an inverted version of @pessimistsarc.bsky.social (which catalogs foolish statements by technophobes from the past). Here instead we have proclamations that, “If we only get TechnoX, everything will be sublime” — and now we’ve achieved X, but things... ain’t sublime. ordinaryabundance.com

Parents yearn for the good old days of childhood for their kids, not realizing that was a brave new world for their parents.

A snapshot of concerns in first decade of 20th century.

Parents yearn for the good old days of childhood for their kids, not realizing that was a brave new world for their parents.

If you’re not hypervigilant in filtering out self interested, irrational hysteria that greets new technologies it is unlikely you’re going to successfully identify & mitigate any real downsides/risks of those new technologies. Path of least resistance is tropes driven by populists & protectionists

LONDON: All the radio waves in the air are turning women into men and men into women. CHICAGO: We’re gonna pump the air so full of radio waves until he becomes Gal Capone.

Feels like people totally forgot widespread beeper bans in U.S. high schools and in some places age limits on owning them! newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-forgot...

Ah, a simpler time. Effectively a quote post of bsky.app/profile/pess... but I wanted to the ALT text.

“The men are spending too much time in looking up two-toed sloths and three-lettered Australian birds or attempting to tune in on Honolulu," - 1924

He probably played too many violent nickelodeons and listened to victrolas. with hidden satanic messages.

When are we finally going to learn and close the picture houses?!

“The men are spending too much time in looking up two-toed sloths and three-lettered Australian birds or attempting to tune in on Honolulu," - 1924

116 years ago - in 1910 - The New York Times reported on a case involving arson committed by a 12-year-old blamed on moving pictures

In the year 2000 Japan put PS2 under export controls. Anyone taking more than one out of the country risked a 5 year prison term.

A 1956 cartoon satirizing the lump of labor fallacy

Nostalgia ignores pessimism, it forgets: The moon mission was unpopular Novel reading was frowned upon The Walkman was anti-social The Bicycle 'corrupted' women After all, why would anyone have thought the good old days were bad? newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/most-ameri...