This Is Not the First Time People Have Been Afraid of a New Tool

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — June 20, 2026

A lot of people act like AI is something completely new and dangerous. It feels that way, but we have been here before.

When computers first showed up, people said they would destroy jobs. When the internet spread, people said it would ruin how we think. Even simple tools like calculators and spellcheck were once called cheating.

Now they are normal.

AI is following the same path. At first, people are unsure. Then they argue about it. Then they slowly start using it. After that, it becomes part of everyday life.

The pattern repeats.

That does not mean AI has no risks. Every tool has risks. But refusing to learn it does not protect you. It just leaves you behind while others figure it out.

The smarter move is to learn how to use it well.

You do not have to trust it completely. You do not have to love it. But you should understand it, because it is not going away.

This is not the end of something.

It is the start of a new normal.

If this work helps you understand what’s happening, help me keep it going: https://www.patreon.com/cw/WPSNews
For more from Cliff Potts, see https://cliffpotts.org

The Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie sans Fil (General Company for Wireless Telegraphy) was created in 1918 and became known as CSF later on. They were heavily implicated in the development of communications and had their paws in the cable business, components, tubes, telephones, radios, military communications, broadcasting and whatnot, and they were also busy outside France, building emitters in Serbia, Poland (iirc) and such.

Something with nationalization, mergers, spin-offs, yadayada complicated financial organization, I mean just look at the companies listed!

Is the 1950s CSF the same as the 1920s one? Not really, but anyway have a March 1957 ad alongside the Nov. 1925 one ❤️

#TSF #RadioHistory #VintageRadio #VintageAdvertising #HistoryOfTechnology

La Radio-Industrie was founded in 1922. They played an important part in the development of TV in France from 1935 on.

#poster_thursday

#TSF #RadioHistory #VintageRadio #VintageAdvertising #HistoryOfTechnology

Rope was the first general-purpose technology. We let the evidence rot

https://www.martincid.com/business/rope-first-general-purpose-technology-2/

#FiberTechnology #HistoryOfTechnology #GeneralPurposeTechnology

These resistors were manufactured in 1964, 61 years later they have driften some - as carbon composition types are prone to do.

Those were 43R when they put them into the box on 2 Nov. 1964, today they measure > 56 Ohms. A "little" bit beyond the 5% tolerance 👀

#TSF #RadioHistory #VintageRadio #VintageAdvertising #HistoryOfTechnology

"Keep Your H.F. in its Place" 😈 (in 1927)

#TSF #RadioHistory #VintageRadio #VintageAdvertising #HistoryOfTechnology

Arphone, one of the many brands that ended up in the belly of CGTVE (iirc).

#poster_thursday

#TSF #RadioHistory #VintageRadio #VintageAdvertising #HistoryOfTechnology

Blaupunkt exhibit at the IFA in Berlin, September 1927

<- https://oldbytes.space/@daily_tsf/116634628895583049

#TSF #RadioHistory #VintageRadio #VintageAdvertising #HistoryOfTechnology

📯#DigitalHistoryOFK: Zachary Loeb (Purdue University) explores “What’s the worst that could have happened? Y2K and the Risks of the Information Age.” This talk asks how Y2K was treated as a crisis aiming to help us better understand and navigate technological risks today.

📅Wed ,27 May 2026, 4–6 pm (CET), online
ℹ️https://dhistory.hypotheses.org/13480

#4memory #DigitalHistory #HistoryOfTechnology #CriticalInfrastructure #STS
@historikerinnen @histodons @digitalhumanities