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Louis Anslow

Writer and technologist

Louis Anslow is the author of Pessimists Archive, a project to jog our collective memories about the hysteria, technophobia, and moral panic that often greets new technologies, ideas, and trends.

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A collage of vintage newspaper headlines expressing concerns and skepticism about new technologies and cultural trends.
A man wearing headphones speaks into a CBS microphone in a radio studio, with audio equipment visible in the background.
Entertainment
“War of the Worlds” didn’t panic America. Newspapers did.
Legacy newspapers inflated a handful of complaints into “mass panic” to blunt radio’s rise and defend their influence.
An older man in a suit stands in front of a chalkboard filled with mathematical equations, holding a piece of chalk.
AI
AI doomerism isn’t new. Meet the original alarmist: Norbert Wiener
Decades before Geoffrey Hinton and Eliezer Yudkowsky raised alarms, the computer scientist warned AI could steal jobs and outsmart humans.
Black and white photo of the Eiffel Tower during the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris, with crowds, pavilions, and a Ferris wheel in the background.
Engineering
The Eiffel Tower was considered techno-dystopian
Before completion for the 1889 World’s Fair, the Eiffel Tower project was treated by some as an industrialist “Tower of Babel.”
A black Sony Walkman cassette player with orange foam headphones is displayed on an orange background.
Music
The forgotten war on the Walkman
Today, the Sony Walkman inspires nostalgia, but in the 1980s, it was feared as a dangerous device that could disconnect society.
A close-up of a humanoid robot with a neutral expression standing in front of rows of identical robots in a futuristic setting.
AI
The real danger in “I, Robot” isn’t AI. It’s humans.
“I, Robot” is a convincing allegory in favor of embracing AI innovation rather than over-regulating, centralizing, and stifling it.
A man with wild white hair and a mustache, resembling Einstein, speaks passionately at a podium, raising one hand, with a microphone and mural in the background.
Automation
Albert Einstein said automation caused the Great Depression. It didn’t.
Einstein blamed automation for the widespread unemployment of the Great Depression, but his reasoning was based on a false premise.
Black and white illustration of two men working in a factory, moving large rectangular blocks with machinery and carts.
History
The war on artificial ice
Decades before states started banning lab-grown meat, manufactured ice was the “unnatural” alternative under attack.
Three black-and-white portrait photos of the same man in a suit, labeled No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3, displaying different facial expressions.
Misinformation
America tried to ban fake photos in 1912
Mistakes made by the US government 100 years ago could help us determine the best way to regulate AI-manipulated images and videos today.
Two children play Pac-Man arcade machines in a dimly lit arcade. One child stands on a stool, while an adult nearby holds cash.
Video Games
Pac-Man turned 45 today. The surgeon general once warned that playing it could make kids violent.
Officials’ warnings about the impact of video games on kids were never proven true. They may be making the same mistake with social media.
A woman speaks on a phone. A monitor on her desk shows the face of a man.
Computer Science
Skype is dead. Here’s why it almost wasn’t born.
Threatened by their low cost, traditional telephone companies tried to get long-distance internet phone services banned in the 1990s.