New technologies drive economical prosperity

and yet, we humans suck at adopting new technologies.

“You look back at history, and one of the things we know from history, humans are not good with new technologies. I hear many people now say, “AI, we’ve been here before. We had the radio, we had the printing press, we had the Industrial Revolution.” Every time there is a big new technology, people are afraid and it’ll take jobs and the bad actors” - Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval makes a good point that from a historical perspective, we’re adopting technologies at an ever faster rate. We’re growing economically.

But what’s hidden from that historical story is the pain and the change in between. There are lost jobs, and there are people afraid. There are conflicts and wars fought over technology adoption.

Yes, technological progress is good, but adoption is far from a no-brainer; it might just destroy a good part of us.