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what fact about our current world would freak people out if it were a newspaper headline a century ago? (lemmy.eco.br)

submitted 1 year ago by Phen@lemmy.eco.br to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Some news that would be completely mundane today but scary or shocking in the past.

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's a pattern that emerges over and over again. Technology is reasonably easy to predict (we're still using 1920s physics after all) but the way people will react to and interact with technology is completely impossible to see coming. Like, our guesses are about as good as random chance; that's why nobody saw PCs and smartphones coming and then turned around and poured a lot of money into 3D TVs and wearables.

I don't think it would be impossible to model somehow, but I've yet to see any convincing work in that direction.