Humanity's greatest innovations are often born from existential fears. For example, the 19th-century panic over running out of guano for fertilizer directly spurred the invention of the Haber-Bosch process, which created synthetic fertilizer and enabled a global population boom. Today's AI fears may catalyze similar breakthroughs.

The centralizing technologies of the 20th century (mass media, mass production) are being superseded by decentralizing ones (internet, crypto). This is causing history to "run in reverse," with modern events mirroring 19th-century patterns like the rise of robber baron-like figures and the fracturing of empires.

The negative reaction of recent graduates to AI is rooted in the historical reality that major technological shifts cause brutal, multi-generational disruption. Precedents like the Industrial Revolution show that it can take until the third generation (grandkids) for society to fully adapt and reap the benefits.

What we call "prediction" is just the recognition of recurring patterns from history. The future is genuinely unpredictable because the universe is inherently creative and open-ended. The future doesn't exist yet to be predicted; it must be constructed.

While society now worries about distraction (ADHD), the 19th century’s concern was “monomania”—an obsessive, machine-like focus on a single task demanded by industrial capitalism. This shows that anxieties about attention are shaped by the economic structures of the era.

The true, lasting impact of AI is not just in automating tasks but in fundamentally changing how humans perceive and interact with the future. By making outcomes more predictable, AI alters our core frameworks for decision-making and risk assessment, a profound societal shift that is currently under-recognized.

Though the Century Safe's contents were initially mocked as duds, a closer look reveals their significance. A temperance pamphlet represents a massive social movement; a photo of Congress captures a fleeting moment of Black representation. This shows that mundane artifacts, when properly contextualized, are powerful windows into a past era's anxieties and aspirations.

The Century Safe's contents seemed trivial because its creators were more captivated by the new ability to "embalm a moment" than by what that moment should contain. The act of sealing something for 100 years was the spectacle, making the specific objects almost an afterthought, a lesson in how new technology can overshadow its purpose.

Throughout history, new technologies have been met with "doom and gloom" predictions that rarely materialize. The fear that email would create a "paperless society" and bankrupt paper companies is a prime example of getting it wrong. This historical perspective suggests today's most dire predictions about AI are also likely incorrect.