10 Ridiculous Fears People Had About New Technology

General2

5 – Wi-Fi,

5b

  • What is it about technology we can’t physically see that makes us fear for our lives? Radio waves, microwaves… and even our beloved wi-fi terrified us when it first hit the mass market.
  • Although there’s no reliable evidence to substantiate it, many people believe wi-fi has invisible radiation that causes ‘electro sensitivity’ issues and even cancer.
  • Of course it didn’t help that the media latched onto this fear early, running stories about wi-fi’s many potential dangers. Still it obviously didn’t stick: in a poll, seventy-five percent of people said a week without wi-fi would leave them grumpier than a week without coffee.

4 – Trains,

4a

  • When trains first pulled into Reality Station people feared the incredible speeds they travelled would literally tear passengers apart.
  • This revolutionary invention meant people could transport goods and reach faraway places without having to travel days on horseback. No more would they have to succumb to drinking their own pee after getting stranded in a ditch!
  • But new technology comes with a fear of the unknown and it wasn’t long before anti-train propaganda spread warnings that man was not meant to reach incredible speeds like twenty miles an hour. Apparently, it would destroy the environment, cause us to asphyxiate, go insane, and our bodies would disintegrate under the stress.

3 – Cloning,

3d

  • In 1997 cloning technology was all over the news. Journalists were reporting the hell out of Dolly, the world’s first cloned sheep, and a prominent American physicist publicly promised that cloned humans would be around in the next eighteen People became hysterical. The reality that we could be copied, and would no longer be special little snowflakes, seemed right around the corner.
  • Of course none of that ended up happening. We do have the technology to clone food but, despite its benefits, cloning – be it apples or alligators – still makes most people uncomfortable.
  • Mostly this is because people consider cloned specimens soulless or artificial. It also doesn’t help that Hollywood keeps pushing the idea that a clones are going to overthrow us and take over the world…

2 – Computers,

2c

  • Given that eighty percent of sci-fi movies involve computers rebelling against their creators it’s not surprising technophobes seize up in terror whenever computers are mentioned.
  • People thought computers would make us so efficient and productive that we’d have too much free time on our hands. Yes, this is something they were genuinely concerned about. But joke’s on them: nowadays the majority of us are overworked and spend more time on our electronic devices than we really need to. So, Ha! Ha! … Haah…
  • Add to this concerns about radiation and electrocution, and men who feared they’d get testicular cancer from having laptops in their laps. Of course a few people also believe we’re living in a Matrix-style computer simulation. But they’ll all be dealt with…

1 – The Telephone,

General1

  • The humble telephone is a huge part of our daily lives, but it wasn’t long ago that it was scaring the bejesus out of us every time it rang.
  • This is because the elderly – who have to be suspicious of anything new; it’s in their contract – thought they’d be electrocuted if they touched one. Husbands feared their wives would be on it all day, gossiping, while preachers believed it was the Devil’s instrument and a conduit for evil spirits.
  • Even the New York Times staff were afraid. They claimed telephones would invade our privacy and ruin personal relationships, turning us into “nothing but transparent heaps of jelly”. Mark Twain snubbed the device. I mean, an interconnected society? That will never catch on.

sources

 

Reactions
  • Wat (50%)
  • Lewd (21%)
  • No (14%)
  • Epic (11%)
  • Creepy (4%)

2 thoughts on “10 Ridiculous Fears People Had About New Technology

Comments are closed.