{"id":2022520,"date":"2023-09-05T17:31:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T21:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ai-paranoia-is-nothing-new-looking-back-at-1980s-computerphobia\/"},"modified":"2023-09-05T17:34:49","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T21:34:49","slug":"ai-paranoia-is-nothing-new-looking-back-at-1980s-computerphobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ai-paranoia-is-nothing-new-looking-back-at-1980s-computerphobia\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting on the 1980s, &#8216;Computerphobia&#8217; was the precursor to AI-paranoia."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fai-paranoia-is-nothing-new-looking-back-at-1980s-computerphobia%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2022520&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>AI-Paranoia Is \u200cNothing New: Looking\u200d Back at 1980s &#8216;Computerphobia&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Those who fear the consequences of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/from-impeaching-incitement-to-canceling-conservatism\/\" title=\"From Impeaching Incitement to Canceling Conservatism\">artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI) may take\u200b comfort in knowing that they have\u200c plenty of company. New technologies always produce new anxieties.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, fretful souls in search of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fire-breaks-out-at-paul-newmans-camp-for-sick-children-but-no-injuries-reported\/\" title=\"Fire Breaks Out At Paul Newman\u2019s Camp For Sick Children, But No Injuries Reported\">kindred spirits<\/a> need look no \u2063deeper into history than the 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>Those of\u200b us who entered adolescence during that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/longtime-assistant-divulges-secret-recipe-ronald-reagan-former-presidents-112th-birthday\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Morning in America<\/a>\u201d decade \u2064might have forgotten one\u200c of its ironic \u200bphenomena: \u201ccomputerphobia,\u201d or the intense fear of \u2062personal computers, at\u2062 that time still a new\u2064 consumer product.<\/p>\n<p>A 2015 article in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2015\/03\/when-people-feared-computers\/388919\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The \u200dAtlantic<\/a> presented both quantitative and qualitative \u2063evidence of computerphobia\u2019s reality.<\/p>\n<p>On the quantitative side, an analysis of \u201ccomputerphobia\u201d references tracked by Google in\u2064 books published \u2063between 1950 and 2015 showed near-zero results until the \u200blate \u20641970s. Then, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ai-paranoia-is-nothing-new-looking-back-at-1980s-computerphobia\/\" title=\"Reflecting on the 1980s, 'Computerphobia' was the precursor to AI-paranoia.\">dramatic\u200d upward spike began<\/a> around 1980 and peaked\u200b mid-decade.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, periodicals\u2063 and newspapers picked up on the trend and addressed the new anxieties.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe most important thing to remember\u200c about computerphobia is that it\u2019s a natural reaction to something unfamiliar,\u201d \u200bassociate editor Charles Rubin wrote in a \u200d1983 issue of Personal Computing magazine.<\/p>\n<p>And \u201cdon\u2019t forget that \u200cyou\u2019re in charge, not \u2063the computer,\u201d Rubin added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Small wonder \u2064that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/arnold-schwarzenegger-draws-pity-devastating-comments-heaven\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Arnold\u2064 Schwarzenegger\u2019s<\/a> \u201cThe Terminator\u201d topped the U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxofficemojo.com\/release\/rl3480585729\/weekend\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">box office<\/a> chart for two weeks\u200d in 1984. A film whose\u2064 premise involves a \u2063dystopian future of self-aware machines would resonate\u2062 with computerphobes everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>A \u201cphobia,\u201d of \u2063course, denotes something irrational, and sometimes we only\u200b detect\u200d the irrationality in hindsight.\u2064 Whatever \u200ctheir defects, personal computers did not destroy human society in the \u200b1980s.<\/p>\n<p>The question of what\u200c drove \u200bthe computerphobia phenomenon of that decade requires broadening our view enough to \u2063recognize\u200c that\u200d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-conservatism-must-conserve\/\" title=\"What Conservatism Must Conserve\">human beings<\/a>\u2063 have always maintained an \u200cambivalent relationship with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/zg-technology-allows-phones-open-like-scrolls-works-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In some cases, new developments have inspired reverent awe. Samuel Morse\u2019s \u2064first commercial <a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/this-day-in-history\/what-hath-god-wrought\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">telegraph<\/a> message in 1844, for instance, \u2064brought \u200bback a fitting\u200d reply: \u201cWhat Hath God Wrought?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At other times, ignorance of the\u2062 novelty has resulted in tragedy.\u2062 At the\u200c opening\u200b of the Liverpool \u200cand Manchester Railway in 1830,\u2063 prominent British statesman \u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/spartacus-educational.com\/PRhuskisson.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">William Huskisson<\/a>, \u2063a member of Parliament for Liverpool and a former leader of the House of \u200dCommons, \u2063showed his lack of\u200c familiarity with the\u2063 new technology when he failed to evade an oncoming locomotive. The \u200caccident left\u200c Huskisson\u2019s legs\u2062 mangled, and he died hours later.<\/p>\n<p>Computerphobia involved fears less morbid but still unsettling.<\/p>\n<p>According to the 1996 book \u201cWomen\u2064 and Computers,\u201d computerphobia \u200centailed \u201ca range of resistances, fears, anxieties, and hostilities.\u201d These included\u2013perhaps most significantly\u2013\u201cfeeling that you can be replaced by a machine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This particular anxiety\u200b has manifested\u2064 most \u200coften in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/unemployment-rate-spikes-new-jobs-report-defying-economists-expectations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">workforce<\/a>, \u2062where machines \u200dhave seemed destined \u200cto displace nearly everyone.<\/p>\n<p>The good news on this\u2064 front is that such anxieties have always existed, and they have always \u200bfailed to materialize.<\/p>\n<p>According to a 2015 \u2064article in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2015\/aug\/17\/technology-created-more-jobs-than-destroyed-140-years-data-census\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The\u2062 Guardian<\/a>, for \u2063instance, technology has created \u2062far \u2063more\u200d jobs than it has destroyed. In fact, based\u200c on census data from England and Wales since 1871, a study \u2062conducted by economists at the \u2063British-based consulting firm Deloitte described technology, on balance, as a \u2064\u201cgreat \u200cjob-creating machine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jean Vilbert, Professor of Law and Economics \u2064in Sao Paolo, Brazil, made a similar \u200dargument \u2062in a\u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/technology-creates-more-jobs-than-it-destroys\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2019 article<\/a> published by the Foundation for Economic Education. Vilbert even cited the Deloitte study to show that jobs lost in one sector \u200creappear and multiply in another.<\/p>\n<p>The occasion \u2064for\u200d Vilbert\u2019s article was speculation\u2013rampant\u2062 across 2019 headlines\u2013that robots and AI soon \u200dwould eliminate human workers. \u2064Vilbert noted that\u2062 Democratic presidential candidates Andrew Yang and\u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/former-nyc-mayor-de-blasio-wants-bidens-next-labor-secretary-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bill de Blasio<\/a> had fueled these anxieties \u2062through anti-automation rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMachines will replace humans. Artificial intelligence will outpace \u2064people.\u200d There will \u200cbe no jobs \u200cfor the poor. Chaos! \u2064Famine! Technology is casting\u200c a shadow \u2063over \u2063the future.\u2063 This is the current mainstream outcry\u2014or could we say \u200bparanoia?\u201d Vilbert wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Computerphobia \u2062reminds us \u200cthat we have known such anxieties\u200b in the \u2063not-so-distant past.<\/p>\n<p>The\u2063 post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/ai-paranoia-nothing-new-looking-back-1980s-computerphobia\/\">AI-Paranoia \u200cIs Nothing New: Looking Back at 1980s &#8216;Computerphobia&#8217;<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\">The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>may recall the widespread concerns about nuclear war and the potential devastation it could bring. Just as AI now raises questions about the future, it is important to remember that anxiety about new technologies is not unique to our time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2056,"featured_media":2022521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2022520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2056"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2022520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2022521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2022520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2022520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2022520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}