Past Dooms That Didn't Arrive
5/26/202634 min
People have been predicting the end of the world forever. They’ve always been wrong. Maybe we’re wrong today, too.
So, we’re looking back at three past dooms predicted in the 20th century, none of which arrived as advertised. Why not? What can we learn? Does it mean that the current biggest end-of-the-world fears may be overblown, misunderstood, or — with effort — preventable? Along the way: failed utopias, dystopias, and the animal Ben fears most: the mini-hippo.
Guest: Matt Novak, journalist at Gizmodo and long-time author of the Paleofuture blog.
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[gentle music] The stately Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, 1967. Jewelry glints from the wrist of a woman seated at a table as she delicately holds out a coffee cup to be filled. Steam hisses, and a hydraulic-powered claw swings toward the woman from an enormous two-ton robot. A metal arm the size of Victor Wembanyama looms next to her, and that claw gently tilts a coffee pot and pours it into the woman's cup. This was a real stunt in the late '60s. A mid-century robotics company had set up its new industrial machine arm to pour coffee at the Biltmore, showcasing its memory and precision. A simple movement, pouring coffee, but to the people there, it was dramatic because of what they thought they were seeing about the near future. The PR director of the robotics company boasted that The Beast, as he called it, was faster, stronger, more capable than any man. An LA Times reporter