Contributor

Louis Anslow

Writer and technologist

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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.

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."

Louis Anslow

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.

Louis Anslow

A close-up of a humanoid robot with a neutral expression standing in front of rows of identical robots in a futuristic setting.

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.

Louis Anslow

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.

Louis Anslow

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.

Louis Anslow

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.

Louis Anslow

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.

Louis Anslow

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.

Louis Anslow

A curated collection of eight vintage pagers from various brands and models is meticulously arranged on a pristine white background.

Computer Science

Pager panic: When beepers were infiltrating schools

Cities and schools once actually arrested students for carrying this dangerous technology.

Louis Anslow

When the Mac was a “munition”

Macs were once deemed a threat to national security. Will today’s AI rules seem similarly outdated when we look back on them?

Louis Anslow