Transformative technologies have always been accompanied by optimistic and pessimistic visions of how they will change humanity and society. In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates worried that the recent invention of writing would have a deleterious effect on the memories of young Greeks who, he predicted, would become “the hearers of many things and will have learned nothing.” When books began to roll off Johannes Gutenberg’s press, many suspected they would be “confusing and harmful,” overwhelming young people with information. Although Marconi believed his radio was helping humanity win “the struggle with space and time,” as his invention became popular, others feared that children’s impressionable minds would be polluted by dangerous ideas and families rendered obsolete as they sat around listening to entertainment programs. We don’t know if early Homo sapiens argued whether fire burns or warms, but you can hazard a guess that they did.
Be an optimist.
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