Joseph Schenck Claimed “Talking Doesn’t Belong In Pictures”

The co-founder of what would become 20th Century Fox, Joseph Schenck, was quite a player in the movie industry. 20th Century Fox was massive and Schenck became one of the most powerful and influential people in entertainment alive. Yet before all of this, he was President of United Artists Corporation.

In a statement to the New York Times, Joseph claimed in 1928 that “talking doesn’t belong in pictures.” Of course, at this time in the movie-making industry, silent movies were the trend. “Talkies” as they would be called, were beloved. Obviously, those who made their money on silent films like Schenck weren’t fans. Eventually, he’d make millions on those “talkies” he hated.

People Thought Trains Would Rip You Apart In 1825

People weren’t quite sure about trains in the early 1800s. In one of the biggest points where people freaked out about new technology, some assumed trains would rip people apart. The concern seemed to involve the speed at which they traveled. When Stockton-Darlington Railway opened in 1825, several insisted that trains were unsafe forms of travel.

Cultural Anthropologist Genevieve Bell claimed that critics of trains felt gruesome deaths would occur to those on board. Since no one understood how speed and force operated, the assumption was that people would just melt or limbs would fly off. At one point, people thought women’s uteruses would fly out if trains reached 50 MPH. We can safely say that none of this happened.

The Infamous Y2K Phenomenon

For those unaware, people in the 1990s were freaking out about the Year 2000. It was a brand new millennium, and the assumption was, somehow, all known technology would come to an end once this new century began. There were even signs and advertisements up telling people to shut their computer off before midnight so that it would not be affected.

Some people assumed the world was going to come to an end while others thought it would become some sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland that the Mad Max team could envy. Yet none of this occurred. Their fear did have some validity, however. Several of the technological clocks used in computers ended, so once they stopped there would be an issue at least partly. Yet governments around the world worked to fix this problem well before anything happened.

Google Is Going To Make Us Stupid

Nicolas Carr wrote an article for The Atlantic in 2008 that was simply titled: “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” It was an honest question and the piece is still quite a good read. He brought up how the internet might be sapping our attention and stunting our potential reasoning in life. When you have the answer to almost anything at your fingertips by merely searching Google for it, one can easily question if people will truly want or need to learn in the traditional sense.

The New York Times Wrote That “Wearable Tech Could Cause Cancer”

It seems crazy how often the New York Times got things wrong regarding new technology. Before we saw the smartwatch along with more wearable technology, they claimed that smartwatches could cause cancer among other health problems. Of course, they were corrected on this by several people, including the website, Slate. For their part, the NY Times decided to amend the article.

Dr. Clair Patterson’s Revolutionary Research On Leaded Gasoline’s Impact On Health

In spite of its problems, lead does present as a useful additive for numerous things. That is what led a version of it, called tetraethyllead, to be added to our gasoline. Dr. Clair Patterson noticed how lead impacted human beings back in the 1940s, but his main claim to fame was looking into the age of the Earth. He’d find the answer to this, which allowed him to become internationally famous. Patterson then decided to look into other areas of science afterward.

“Email Hurts The IQ More Than Pot,” Said CNN

CNN seemed to get a lot of stuff wrong with this entire concept. Not just because there is no proven study that cannabis rots the brains of adults but that email would even make sense to do so. That did not stop them from publishing this in freaking 2005!! You’d think they’d put this out in the early 1990s maybe, but by 2005? Many believe CNN’s entire concept behind this was due to some type of pay off by Hewitt-Packard, better known as simply HP.

A Swiss Biologist Was Not A Fan Of The Printing Press

Today, we know the Printing Press as one of the most important inventions in world history. Not only did it give rise to the media but it also allowed us to print books at a much faster pace. It could also be written in numerous languages in understandable and easy to read words. It used to take people years to write books, then even longer to write multiple copies of them. One would assume this revolutionary invention would be accepted by all.

Chapman University Claims People Fear Personal Information Tracking

To be honest, we can understand why there is an issue regarding the idea of public information tracking. It’s not exactly new technology as we could track information on people for decades in some form or another. Yet Chapman University conducted a survey where they asked Americans about their fears. Personal Information tracking ranked 3 & 5 respectively in America’s top technology-related fields.

Self-Driving Cars Could Lead To Death, According To Many

While Google, Tesla, and many others are working on prototypes or have fully developed self-driving cars, there is still a great fear around them. We can even see why people find them to be such a threat. New technology like this is going to have problems, as self-driving cars are fully automated. This means they can be hacked or might not stop when they need to, causing possible accidents. This is not even discussing how they’ll interact with other cars that aren’t self-driving yet.

The Understandable Fear Of Drones

The world of Drones has become massive over the last few years. Drones were mostly an exclusive thing to the military before their commercial use became a major part of the market. They have since become a major fear worldwide, and in many ways, we can see why there is such a massive fear of them. In some nations, drones have been used to drop bombs over the years with the United States being the main nation known for doing this.

The Potential For Unwanted Home Surveillance Via TVs, Alexa, Etc.

One could be forgiven for assuming that there is a potential problem with some of our “smart” devices. There is a potential that many could be hacked due to their connection to the internet. Yet that does not mean they can all “see” anything going on, but hearing stuff? That is not only a possible threat, it has admittedly occurred with the Amazon Alexa. It’s already proven it can “eavesdrop” on conversations. Of course, the real problem with this is not that it can eavesdrop.

A Former U.S. President Was Afraid Of Electricity

When a new thing called “electricity” made its way into places across the United States, many felt it was a major revolutionary opportunity. You could light up entire homes using it, and we’d later find electricity in use across a multitude of fields, including other new technology. Yet when electricity made its way to the White House in Washington, D.C. it was not met with a lot of love by the U.S. President at the time, Benjamin Harrison.

Sources: [The Guardian, The New York Times, Ranker, BBC, CBS News, National Institutes of Health, King’s College, The Washington Post, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, Wall Street Journal, Vox, Spectator Magazine, Women And Computers, The Glasgow Herald, Electronic Frontier Foundation, History.com, Slate.com, MentalFloss.com]