Holy moley rose tinted glasses. There was plenty of internet and computer pessimism at the time as well, with the Internet expected to lead to more coal being

Holy moley rose tinted glasses. There was plenty of internet and computer pessimism at the time as well, with the Internet expected to lead to more coal being used [0], being viewed as a conduit for scams [1], the risk of moral panics [2], and being blamed for causing the Columbine Massacre [3]. Ironically, this same author at the NYT (David Streitfeld) was a reporting negatively about the Dot-Com boom in the 1990s at the WashPo [4][5] as well as during the subsequent bust [6] and has been very public about his oride of being "low-tech" [7]. There is nothing wrong with that stance, but the entire premise of the article that techno-optimism was the norm which turned into techno-pessimism is clearly written in bad faith, when a large portion of the intelligentsia was already techno-pessimistic in the 1990s and 2000s, just like they were in the 80s, 70s, and earlier. [0] - https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1999/0531/6311070a.html?sh=2863b8542580 https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1999/0531/6311070a.html?sh=286... [1] - https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/01/technology/internet-s-chain-of-foolery.html https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/01/technology/internet-s-cha... [2] - https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/322796.322800 https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/322796.322800 [3] - https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/02/weekinreview/the-nation-alma-maters-two-words-behind-the-massacre.html https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/02/weekinreview/the-nation-a... [4] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/11/06/glee-gloom-in-silicon-valley/f4548e8e-def8-49e4-8e7c-9de7b6f5d41b/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/11/06/g... [5] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1999/05/18/online-booksellers-jockey-with-price-cuts/2f95b9e6-3c8f-4428-9843-d30b2ace39b5/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1999/05/18/o... [6] - https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jul-21-mn-24886-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jul-21-mn-24886... [7] - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/technology/personaltech/tech-reporter-does-not-use-tech.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/technology/personaltech/t...