200 Years of Tech Panics: From Bicycles to AI

New inventions are a
continual source of fear.

What about perfectly innocent
inventions like bicycles?

The bicycle is the devil's advance
agent, morally and physically,

in thousands of instances.

Wow. Bicycles were the work of the devil.

Wonder what people thought
about the invention of cars.

Motoring is one of the most
contemptible, soul destroying,

and revitalizing pursuits.

In England,

fears of these horseless carriages led to
a speed limit of just four miles per hour,

with a person walking ahead waving
a red flag to warn bystanders.

Every significant Socrates
was Socrates was not a fan.

Books will create forgetfulness
in the learner's souls

because they will not use their memories.
What about artificial intelligence?

It's normal and natural to see AI
and fear how it might change society.

It has the potential of a
civilizational destruction.

However, if history is any guide, we
have little hope of accurately predicting

anything about its impact.

You might say, forget the moral panic.

What about jobs?

Shouldn't we be scared
of being replaced by AI?

Certainly, new technologies will take
some jobs, just as they have in the past.

Ever heard of the job, knocker
upper? It's not what it sounds like.

During the industrial revolution,

it was someone's job to go door
to door and wake people up.

So roosters were replaced by knocker
uppers, who were replaced by alarm clocks,

which were replaced by cell phones,
which will probably eventually

be replaced by something else.

Many of the voices you've heard in this
video aren't people, but AI generated.

Hi. I'm Hal. I'm Samantha.
My name is Rachel.

Don't worry. I'm a real human
and still have a job. For now.

Oh, boy. But knock her upper is one job.

What does the data say about
the overall trends in job loss?

Here's the unemployment rate
and labor force participation

rate in the United States
since nineteen fifty.

Despite all the technological
advancements of the past century,

labor force participation has remained
steady and unemployment hasn't shot up. Why?

Technology destroys,

but it also creates.

Knocker uppers might be out of a job,
but there were plenty of new jobs

created for designing, manufacturing,
marketing, and distributing alarm clocks.

Think of all the career opportunities
that didn't exist a decade ago.

So should we be worried about technology?

At the individual level,

maybe. Depending on your job, you
could be the next knocker upper,

switchboard operator, or voice over actor.

Wait, what? Come on. Okay. Cut.

While AI might replace
some voice over actors,

at a societal level, history suggests
that we will see both jobs lost

and new jobs created, many of
which we can't even imagine.

But could this time be different?

We'll explore this
question in future videos,

but if history is any
guide, the terminators

we fear will turn out to be teddy bears.

If you're a teacher, you should check out
our free unit plan that uses this video.

If you're a student,

visit the links in the description for
more resources on how to use AI to learn.

Or if you're just curious to watch more
videos like this check out this playlist.