Tales From the MoJo Road –
By Glynn Wilson –
COULTERVILLE, Calif. – Why do some people, even many experts, fear the coming Artificial Intelligence Revolution? While some people, even some whose professions are at risk, seem ho hum about it?
For eons of time, but mainly in the past 250 years, humans invented new technologies that replaced old technologies, and changed the world at the time.
Think of the horse and buggy being replaced by the automobile. At the turn of the 19th century, there were 21 million horses in the U.S. and only about 4,000 automobiles. By 1915, the carriage industry had been decisively overtaken by the automobile industry. As late as 1935, there were still about 3,000 buggies manufactured each year for use in rural areas. Some are still used in movies and Amish country, where people still try to live on primitive technology.
And of course some cowboys still ride horses to herd cows, and there’s actually some open range left, on federal land anyway.
***
There is no doubt this bubble is going to bust, and the national and world economy and you and me will pay the price.
But just for the heck of it, before Open A.I. forces everyone to pay to use it, I asked ChatGPT this question.
“Name previous technologies famously replaced by new technology, like automobiles replacing horses, the steam engine, etc.” With followup questions below.
The Bot said:
“Love this topic — tech glow-ups and glow-downs 😄”
Here’s a clean list of well-known technologies that were famously replaced (or mostly displaced) by newer ones, with examples people usually recognize right away:
Read the full column in the New American Journal