AI and other tech breakthroughs have been treated with similar suspicion. This applies to the arrival of the printing press, the locomotive and the motor vehicle.
Below is what happened when Gottfried Benz took his vehicle into town for a drive in the 19th Century. It was the AI breakthrough of its time.
“It was soon apparent to him that not a word about his experiments had reached the ears of those outside Mannheim… It was as though some diabolical engine of the father of evil had suddenly dropped from the clouds; children fled screaming from him to their houses; mothers made a hasty rush for their offspring and pulled them indoors as they did so. A number of the older people, less agile than the others, fell down on their knees as he approached, and made the sign of the cross on their breasts. Horses took fright, and either bolted or performed circus tricks in the middle of the road. One young man fled in terror in front of him shouting to all at the Devil had come; men repairing the roads threw down their tools and made off across Fields as fast as their legs would carry them. in other villages he passed through, the inhabitants took up an aggressive attitude; large numbers of stones were thrown …
In many parts of the country it was regarded as something supernatural. Astonishment, terror and hostility were intermixed, for the inhabitants seldom read newspapers and so missed the brief allusions to the new invention which were beginning to appear in the German Press.”
The motor vehicle is one of a long list of overreactions to satanic technologies. For example, “With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like – yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon. Doesn’t work out,” said Elon Musk in 2014.
More recently there was a letter urging for a pause on development signed by tech leaders, professors and researchers in urged artificial intelligence labs to stop the training of the most powerful AI systems for at least six months, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.”
The motor car provides many new opportunities and changed society. However, it put the horse and cart transport out of business. Should we have demanded a 6-month pause back then?
