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Pessimists Archive Newsletter

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Fears about old things when they were new. Click to read Pessimists Archive Newsletter, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

HistorySociety / politics / economyTech news / industry

’20’21’22’23’24’25’26
Posts
122 from 28 Dec 2020 to 12 Oct 2026
Posting
now and then (4 in the last year)
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magazine
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2026 4

  1. The 1st Time Machines Mogged Mathematicians
  2. Before MYTHOS, SATAN: a 1990s Software Satanic Panic
  3. New York Once Banned Free Legal Advice Over Radio
  4. New Year's Resolutions of the Past: Vices That Became Virtues

2025 13

  1. When Ozzy Osborne Survived Crucifixion
  2. Most Americans Opposed the Moon Landing
  3. The Forgotten War on the Walkman
  4. The War on Artificial Ice
  5. Audio Version: Thinking Different is Never Popular (at First)
  6. Thinking Different is Never Popular (at First)
  7. Thomas Jefferson Hated Kids Reading Novels
  8. The Saxophone Theory of Everything
  9. The War on Internet Phone Calls
  10. The War on Internet Phone Calls (Audio)
  11. The UK Invented Modern Encryption, then Kept it Secret
  12. When Hollywood Union Members Embraced Artificial Music
  13. Why Steve Wozniak Dismissed PCs and Steve Jobs Didn't

2024 16

  1. New Year Resolutions of Old: Once Vices Now Virtues
  2. The 1800s Had 'Brainrot' Too!
  3. The 1774 Novel Blamed for Youth Suicide
  4. Was The War of the Worlds ‘Panic’ Anti-Radio Propaganda?
  5. Einstein Blamed Automation for the Great Depression
  6. The 1912 War on Fake Photos
  7. The Eiffel Tower was Called Techno-Dystopian
  8. Artists against the Eiffel Tower
  9. Skateboarding: from Nuisance to Olympic Sport
  10. When the Surgeon General Warned About Pac-Man
  11. The New York Times Banned Word Games Before Embracing Them
  12. Why Steve Wozniak Dismissed PCs and Steve Jobs Didn't
  13. Audio: The Forgotten War on Beepers
  14. The Forgotten War on Beepers
  15. Aeroplanes, Airships and Beta Bias
  16. When the Mac was a Munition

2023 23

  1. New Years Resolutions of Yore: Vices That Became Virtues
  2. When the Wright Brothers Proved the NYtimes Wrong
  3. How Isaac Asimov Predicted the OpenAI Drama
  4. Joe Biden Kicked Off the Encryption Wars
  5. When the Mac 'Ruined' Writing
  6. Telegraph Doomers of the 19th Century - Part 1
  7. Photocopiers Terrified the Publishing World
  8. The Moon Landing was Opposed by Majority of US
  9. When the Walkman was Banned
  10. The Unabomber was an AI Doomer (Obviously)
  11. Art Has Always Been Artificial
  12. The Original AI Doomer: Dr. Norbert Wiener
  13. Remember Typewriter Licenses?
  14. Is AI Fear this Century’s Overpopulation Scare?
  15. Robots Have Been About to Take All the Jobs for 100 Years
  16. A Warning About AI from 1863 (!)
  17. Hear Article Reading: DARWIN AMONG THE MACHINES
  18. When Typewriters 'Killed Romance'
  19. Pessimists Archive Newsletter: Before the AI Panic
  20. The Prejudice Against Typewritten Letters
  21. When Educators Mourned the Slide Rule
  22. Kids Will Future Proof Themselves (if we let them)
  23. Predictions about 2023 made in 1830

2022 19

  1. 19th and 20th Century New Years Resolutions
  2. An Ancient Poem Against Sundials (250 B.C.)
  3. 'Hard Sell is the Word with Home Computers' (1990)
  4. 📰 🔍 Pessimists Archive Newsletter
  5. The Queens Coronation was Almost Banned From TV
  6. Portraits Were Just Expensive Selfies
  7. Photography as Aid to Portrait Painting
  8. Horses and Bicycles
  9. 📰 🔍 Pessimists Archive Newsletter
  10. The Hypochondria of Modernity
  11. 📰 🔍 Pessimists Archive Newsletter
  12. A Hint For Office Men
  13. 📰 🔍 Pessimists Archive Newsletter
  14. Tinky Winky Panic
  15. Web 1 is Going Great
  16. 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Newsletter
  17. The Canadian Anti-Vaxx Carriage Protest of 1885
  18. 𝙰𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚈𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝙱𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚜
  19. Slanguage: Slang as Technological Progress

2021 45

  1. 📰 🔍 Pessimists Archive ROUNDUP
  2. YOU CAN HAVE MODERN ART - Critic George Jean Nathan Wants No Part of It, and Explains Why
  3. 🎃 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  4. 👻 📻 Radio was Treated as a Supernatural Force
  5. All the Times Politicians 'Saved' Kids from Entertainment Technology
  6. 🗞 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  7. 1920s Reactions to Aeroplanes
  8. 📸 Candid Camera Concerns Aren’t New
  9. 💉 AN ABSURD PREJUDICE: @NYtimes, 1875
  10. 🗞 Pessimists Archive ROUNDUP
  11. 1918 Déjà Flu
  12. 🗞 Real Old Articles as Tweets
  13. STUDENTS FLEE FIELD AS COMPUTER 'FAD FADES'
  14. 🛹 Skating is Finally a ‘Real’ Sport
  15. Slide Rule ‘fast as calculator’ and Batteries Won’t Run Out (1984)
  16. 1857 Had Onlyfans Too…
  17. 🕰 🕰 🕰 Too Many Clocks! 🕰 🕰 🕰
  18. 🗞 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  19. The Warfare on Typhoid
  20.  Thinking Different is Never Popular (At First)
  21. 7 Stupid Reactions to Flu Mask Laws in 1918 Pandemic
  22. Telephone Industry Moves to Ban Internet Phone Software (1996)
  23. Printed Photos Got Blamed for Narcissism Before Instagram.
  24. Perils of Long Distance Telephone Calls
  25. 🗞 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  26. Air & Space Travel Was Once Called Vain and Wasteful Too
  27. Amazon.Bomb
  28. Pessimists Aloud Podcast
  29. Pessimists Archive Round-Up
  30. 🗞 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  31. 🗞 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  32. 🗞 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  33. Green Energy Cynicism of Yore
  34. 🗞 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Newsletter
  35. 🗞 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  36. 🗞 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  37. 🗞 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  38. 🗞 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  39. Horses Were Self Driving...
  40. 🗞 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  41. 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Roundup
  42. 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Weekly Roundup
  43. Too Much Too Much
  44. 𝙿𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 Weekly Roundup
  45. 𝙾𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚖 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙵𝚊𝚕𝚜𝚎 𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚜

2020 2

  1. 𝙰 𝙽𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝙰𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝟸𝟶𝟶𝟶𝚜 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝟷𝟾𝟹𝟶
  2. Coming soon