{"id":20265,"date":"2026-02-20T19:32:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/?p=20265"},"modified":"2026-02-20T19:32:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:32:51","slug":"the-parallel-of-a-i-fear-and-automobile-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/?p=20265","title":{"rendered":"The Parallel of A.I. Fear and Automobile Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Folks <\/strong>who fear AI, are usually from the <strong>Fundamentalist (not very smart folks because ignorance of God's general revelation) church<\/strong>. Their argument is not different than folks who argue against cars back in the days:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What Is &quot;BRICS&quot;? You Need To Know About this New World Order | Justin Haskins | Ep 1306\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JxSBwyOwunA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>These folks never learn from history. What were the common fear when Automobile first came around, having to transition from horse chariots to cars?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Google Gemini said:<\/strong><br>The <strong>transition from \"horse power\"<\/strong> to the <strong>internal combustion engine<\/strong> was <strong>far from smooth<\/strong>. While we now see the early 20th century as a time of exciting progress, many people at the time viewed the automobile with <strong>genuine terror<\/strong>, <strong>suspicion<\/strong>, and <strong>deep moral concern<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here were the most common fears and anxieties when cars first appeared on the streets:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>Loss of \"Horse Intelligence\"<\/strong><br>One of the most profound fears was the loss of the horse\u2019s own brain. People argued that a horse provided a \"<strong>second intelligence<\/strong>\" on the road. A horse wouldn't knowingly walk <strong>off a cliff<\/strong>, stumble into a deep ditch, or <strong>collide<\/strong> with another animal.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>The Fear: Without a horse to act as a \"natural cruise control,\" people feared that human drivers were too fallible to handle a machine that had no instincts of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Habit: <strong>Early drivers<\/strong> were famously known to yell <strong>\"Whoa!\" or \"Stop!\"<\/strong> at their cars during a panic, forgetting that a machine required a physical brake rather than a verbal command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"2\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\"<strong>Speed <\/strong>Madness\" and Safety<br>In the late 1800s, the world moved at about <strong>10\u201315 mph<\/strong> (the speed of a trotting horse). When cars began reaching <strong>25 or 30 mph<\/strong>, it was seen as a reckless, life-threatening pace.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>The \"Devil Wagon\": Cars were often called \"<strong>devil wagons<\/strong>\" because they moved without any <strong>visible <\/strong>means of propulsion, which felt supernatural or \"ungodly\" to some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Danger to Children: Since<strong> streets were previously a shared<\/strong> space where children played and pedestrians walked freely, the sudden arrival of fast, heavy machines led to a high number of fatalities, <strong>sparking \"Anti-Automobile\" riots in cities like New York and Cincinnati<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"3\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The \"Red Flag\" and \"Blanket\" <strong>Laws<\/strong><br>The fear was so high that governments passed \"<strong>Red Flag Acts<\/strong>.\"<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Manual Warning: In some parts of the UK and the US, a car was legally required to have a p<strong>erson walking 60 yards ahead<\/strong> of it waving a red flag to warn pedestrians and horse-riders of the \"danger\" approaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Pennsylvania Law: One proposed (though possibly apocryphal or short-lived) law in Pennsylvania required a motorist who saw a horse coming to pull over and cover their car with a canvas blanket that blended into the scenery. If the horse still seemed scared, the driver was supposed to take the car apart, piece by piece, and <strong>hide the components in the bushes until the horse passed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"4\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Economic <\/strong>and Social Displacement<br>Entire industries were built around the horse: blacksmiths, stable hands, carriage makers, and <strong>\"buggy whip\" manufacturers<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Job Loss<\/strong>: There was a massive fear that the \"horseless carriage\" would bankrupt the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Elitism<\/strong>: For the first decade, cars were toys <strong>for the ultra-wealthy<\/strong>. Farmers and rural residents often saw them as <strong>\"arrogant\" machines<\/strong> that tore up dirt roads, scared their livestock, and provided no practical use for a working man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"5\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Environmental <\/strong>and Sensory Assault<br>We often think of cars as the original polluters, but at the time, cars were marketed as the \"Green\" solution.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Manure vs. Smoke<\/strong>: In 1898, the first international urban planning conference in NYC was canceled early because no one could figure out what to do about the 2.5 million pounds of horse manure dropped on city streets every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The New Fears: Despite the manure solution, people hated the \"mechanical\" <strong>smell <\/strong>of gasoline and the \"infernal\" racket of the early engines. The <strong>noise <\/strong>was so disruptive that some towns <strong>banned cars from operating on Sundays<\/strong> to keep the peace for church services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"6\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Mechanical <\/strong>Unreliability<br>Early cars were notoriously unreliable. This led to the famous 1890s-1900s jeer: \"<strong>Get a horse!<\/strong>\"<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>The Fear of Being Stranded: If a horse got tired, it could rest; if it was hungry, it could graze. If a car ran out of gas or \"<strong>popped a tire<\/strong>\" (which happened constantly on roads filled with <strong>horseshoe nails<\/strong>), the driver was completely helpless. People feared being stranded in the wilderness with a \"useless pile of iron.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"7\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Physical <strong>Health <\/strong>Concerns<br>Some doctors even hypothesized that the <strong>human body wasn't designed to travel at such high speeds<\/strong>. There were concerns that the <strong>\"vibrations\" of the engine<\/strong> would cause <strong>internal organ damage<\/strong> or that the \"<strong>rushing air<\/strong>\" at 30 mph would make it impossible for passengers to <strong>breathe<\/strong>, leading to \"<strong>respiratory paralysis<\/strong>.\"<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Folks who fear AI, are usually from the Fundamentalist (not very smart folks because ignorance of God's general revelation) church. Their argument is not different than folks who argue against cars back in the days: These folks never learn from &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/?p=20265\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-theologization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20266,"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20265\/revisions\/20266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}