Moral panics around new technology are as absurd as they are predictable. No sooner do we forget that the last one ever happened and we do it all over again. That’s because we’re hard-wired for confirmation and negativity biases.
Everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal:
- Anything that gets invented between then and before you turn 30 is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it.
- Anything that gets invented after you’re 30 is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it, until it’s been around for about 10 years when it gradually turns out to be alright really…”
(Douglas Adams)