Pessimists Archive
@pessimistsarc.bsky.social
We explore and catalog the history of technophobia and moral panic.
Our newsletter: http://newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org
Our newsletter: http://newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org
Pinned
'Some dont's for the women bicyclist.'
A satirical 1895 article commenting on judgemental attitude towards women cyclists.
A satirical 1895 article commenting on judgemental attitude towards women cyclists.
193 years ago Henry Colburn observed:
“objects of the highest importance to mankind, on their first appearance, are slighted and condemned. Posterity smile at the ineptitude of the preceding age, while it becomes familiar with those objects, which that age so eagerly rejected”
“objects of the highest importance to mankind, on their first appearance, are slighted and condemned. Posterity smile at the ineptitude of the preceding age, while it becomes familiar with those objects, which that age so eagerly rejected”
November 3, 2025 at 11:30 PM
193 years ago Henry Colburn observed:
“objects of the highest importance to mankind, on their first appearance, are slighted and condemned. Posterity smile at the ineptitude of the preceding age, while it becomes familiar with those objects, which that age so eagerly rejected”
“objects of the highest importance to mankind, on their first appearance, are slighted and condemned. Posterity smile at the ineptitude of the preceding age, while it becomes familiar with those objects, which that age so eagerly rejected”
Hace 30 años también estaba colapsando internet (vía @pessimistsarc.bsky.social).
October 21, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
Italy has discovered us 🇮🇹
Pessimists archive è un sito che raccoglie esempi storici di resistenza al cambiamento tecnologico, sociale o culturale. L’editoriale di Giovanni De Mauro.
Nuove
Per dormire meglio bisogna smettere di leggere prima di andare a letto. La bicicletta fa male alla salute. Ascoltare la radio può danneggiare le capacità cognitive. Pessimists… Leggi
www.internazionale.it
September 18, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Italy has discovered us 🇮🇹
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
Rolling Stone, 20 years ago:
- There are too many virgins!
- How will Apple keep growing?
- Vaccines cause autism?!?
- There are too many virgins!
- How will Apple keep growing?
- Vaccines cause autism?!?
September 6, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Rolling Stone, 20 years ago:
- There are too many virgins!
- How will Apple keep growing?
- Vaccines cause autism?!?
- There are too many virgins!
- How will Apple keep growing?
- Vaccines cause autism?!?
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
Happy Birthday Google
For many of your 27 years you were called a lazy vice. Finally you have attained the status of a thoughtful virtue of the good old days.
🥂 🥳
For many of your 27 years you were called a lazy vice. Finally you have attained the status of a thoughtful virtue of the good old days.
🥂 🥳
September 27, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Happy Birthday Google
For many of your 27 years you were called a lazy vice. Finally you have attained the status of a thoughtful virtue of the good old days.
🥂 🥳
For many of your 27 years you were called a lazy vice. Finally you have attained the status of a thoughtful virtue of the good old days.
🥂 🥳
Happy Birthday Google
For many of your 27 years you were called a lazy vice. Finally you have attained the status of a thoughtful virtue of the good old days.
🥂 🥳
For many of your 27 years you were called a lazy vice. Finally you have attained the status of a thoughtful virtue of the good old days.
🥂 🥳
September 27, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Happy Birthday Google
For many of your 27 years you were called a lazy vice. Finally you have attained the status of a thoughtful virtue of the good old days.
🥂 🥳
For many of your 27 years you were called a lazy vice. Finally you have attained the status of a thoughtful virtue of the good old days.
🥂 🥳
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
The media outlets rightly admonishing RFK Jr. need to reckon with their own roll in his rise to prominence.
In 2005 Rolling Stone and Salon would publish his op-ed ‘Deadly Immunity’ linking vaccines to autism in children, based on tiny - later retracted - British study.
In 2005 Rolling Stone and Salon would publish his op-ed ‘Deadly Immunity’ linking vaccines to autism in children, based on tiny - later retracted - British study.
November 22, 2024 at 6:51 AM
The media outlets rightly admonishing RFK Jr. need to reckon with their own roll in his rise to prominence.
In 2005 Rolling Stone and Salon would publish his op-ed ‘Deadly Immunity’ linking vaccines to autism in children, based on tiny - later retracted - British study.
In 2005 Rolling Stone and Salon would publish his op-ed ‘Deadly Immunity’ linking vaccines to autism in children, based on tiny - later retracted - British study.
Do you have a fun example of resistance to new things in the past? Reach out! Seeking contributors and collaborators.
September 18, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Do you have a fun example of resistance to new things in the past? Reach out! Seeking contributors and collaborators.
Italy has discovered us 🇮🇹
Pessimists archive è un sito che raccoglie esempi storici di resistenza al cambiamento tecnologico, sociale o culturale. L’editoriale di Giovanni De Mauro.
Nuove
Per dormire meglio bisogna smettere di leggere prima di andare a letto. La bicicletta fa male alla salute. Ascoltare la radio può danneggiare le capacità cognitive. Pessimists… Leggi
www.internazionale.it
September 18, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Italy has discovered us 🇮🇹
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
I swear if some of you saw an electric light bulb for the first time you'd be all "its so impractical and expensive, who even has a generator? We just just use cheap, renewable whale oil"
April 29, 2025 at 10:05 PM
I swear if some of you saw an electric light bulb for the first time you'd be all "its so impractical and expensive, who even has a generator? We just just use cheap, renewable whale oil"
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
Pessimists Archive educates people on and archives the history of technophobia and moral panics
See gadgeteer.co.za/pessimists-a...
#conspiracytheory #FUD #technology
See gadgeteer.co.za/pessimists-a...
#conspiracytheory #FUD #technology
Pessimists Archive educates people on and archives the history of technophobia and moral panics
Pessimists Archive is a project to jog our collective memories about the hysteria, technophobia and moral panic that often greets new technologies, ideas and
gadgeteer.co.za
September 9, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Pessimists Archive educates people on and archives the history of technophobia and moral panics
See gadgeteer.co.za/pessimists-a...
#conspiracytheory #FUD #technology
See gadgeteer.co.za/pessimists-a...
#conspiracytheory #FUD #technology
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
“Our forefathers had to carry water in pails; chop their own firewood to keep themselves warm; hew their own homesteads out of wilderness; walk miles to the nearest neighbour to borrow books.” (1928)
August 17, 2025 at 3:14 PM
“Our forefathers had to carry water in pails; chop their own firewood to keep themselves warm; hew their own homesteads out of wilderness; walk miles to the nearest neighbour to borrow books.” (1928)
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
If anyone builds it, everyone dies (global telegraphy) newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/telegraph-...
Telegraph Doomers of the 19th Century - Part 1
Like the web, telegraphy brought rapid changes in society along with very familiar anxieties and criticisms.
newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org
September 6, 2025 at 9:44 PM
If anyone builds it, everyone dies (global telegraphy) newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/telegraph-...
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
The RFK Jr. article has its own Wikipedia entry lmao
Deadly Immunity - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
September 6, 2025 at 9:59 PM
The RFK Jr. article has its own Wikipedia entry lmao
Rolling Stone, 20 years ago:
- There are too many virgins!
- How will Apple keep growing?
- Vaccines cause autism?!?
- There are too many virgins!
- How will Apple keep growing?
- Vaccines cause autism?!?
September 6, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Rolling Stone, 20 years ago:
- There are too many virgins!
- How will Apple keep growing?
- Vaccines cause autism?!?
- There are too many virgins!
- How will Apple keep growing?
- Vaccines cause autism?!?
If anyone builds it, everyone dies (global telegraphy) newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/telegraph-...
Telegraph Doomers of the 19th Century - Part 1
Like the web, telegraphy brought rapid changes in society along with very familiar anxieties and criticisms.
newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org
September 6, 2025 at 9:44 PM
If anyone builds it, everyone dies (global telegraphy) newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/telegraph-...
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
"Modern technology depletes human cognitive abilities more rapidly than drugs, according to a psychiatric study conducted at King's College, London. And the curse of 'messaging' is to blame." - The Register, 2005 web.archive.org/web/20050424...
June 28, 2025 at 12:30 AM
"Modern technology depletes human cognitive abilities more rapidly than drugs, according to a psychiatric study conducted at King's College, London. And the curse of 'messaging' is to blame." - The Register, 2005 web.archive.org/web/20050424...
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
They said this about the bicycle in 1893 predicting the "evolution of a round-shouldered, hunched-back race"
September 3, 2025 at 4:23 PM
They said this about the bicycle in 1893 predicting the "evolution of a round-shouldered, hunched-back race"
They said this about the bicycle in 1893 predicting the "evolution of a round-shouldered, hunched-back race"
September 3, 2025 at 4:23 PM
They said this about the bicycle in 1893 predicting the "evolution of a round-shouldered, hunched-back race"
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
Reposted by Pessimists Archive
A century later, the evidence is in: Automobile Brain is real, and it’s a leading cause of Miserable City Syndrome.
August 20, 2025 at 1:06 PM
A century later, the evidence is in: Automobile Brain is real, and it’s a leading cause of Miserable City Syndrome.
People are devastated NYT mini crossword was put behind a paywall.
Once upon a time the NYT looked down its nose at word games, refusing to put them in the paper. newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-new-yo...
Once upon a time the NYT looked down its nose at word games, refusing to put them in the paper. newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-new-yo...
The NYtimes Banned Word Games Before Embracing Them
The following newsletter is syndicated from a 2022 BigThink.com article we wrote inspired by The New York Times acquisition of Wordle. In April it was revealed subscribers to The New York Times played...
newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org
August 28, 2025 at 9:12 PM
People are devastated NYT mini crossword was put behind a paywall.
Once upon a time the NYT looked down its nose at word games, refusing to put them in the paper. newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-new-yo...
Once upon a time the NYT looked down its nose at word games, refusing to put them in the paper. newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-new-yo...
“Our forefathers had to carry water in pails; chop their own firewood to keep themselves warm; hew their own homesteads out of wilderness; walk miles to the nearest neighbour to borrow books.” (1928)
August 17, 2025 at 3:14 PM
“Our forefathers had to carry water in pails; chop their own firewood to keep themselves warm; hew their own homesteads out of wilderness; walk miles to the nearest neighbour to borrow books.” (1928)