Today , some of our biggest concerns about the dangers of conveyance have to do with failing or clashing technologies — we’re afraid onboard GPS and other high - technical school feature of speech will get sundry up , say , or evenget hacked . A one C and a half ago , though , our travel vexation involved a lot less AI and much more spontaneous combustion and/or mutilation — think dangers that were just as scary , and ( on the face of it ) just as real .
ethnical anthropologist Genevieve Bell explain to theWall Street JournalTECHsite that uttermost , trepid reactions to raw technology are age old , and have even picked up speeding alongside our rate of innovation . Critics of other steam - eruct locomotives , for lesson , thought “ that women ’s body were not designed to go at 50 miles an minute , ” and worried that “ [ female passengers ’ ] womb would flee out of [ their ] bodies as they were accelerated to that speed”—which , for the record , they did and will not . * Others suspect that any human body might simply unfreeze at high speeds .
Bell attributes this kind of reaction in part to the “ moral panic ” that a society experiences when particularly revelatory technological advances show up — specifically , ones which interfere with or interpolate our relationships with fourth dimension , space , and each other :
This society - wide scare often ( unfairly ) dotes on the threats an invention might pose to women and kid , and it did n’t end when we stupefy over our locomotive concern . As automobiles gained traction in the former 1900s , they were regard by many as noisy , planetary “ devil wagons ” that woman — thought to be prone to fainting , physical failing , and out - of - the - blue bouts of hysteria — wouldn’t be able to see to it by themselves and should n’t be allow to labor .
Nevertheless , adult female stuck up for their right wing to mobility . In 1909 , 22 - year - old Alice Ramsey managed todrive cross - countryin a honorable 59 mean solar day and — having kept herself , her car , and her three female acquaintance inviolate along the way — helped try that woman could be trusted behind the wheel .
Time ’s also told us that , despite initial fear of the telephone ’s possible downsides , chatting on the speech sound will not stimulate impropriety , self-possession , or burning in cleaning lady . With any circumstances , it ’ll turn out that the textual matter - glad youngsters of today will still be able-bodied to speak in full sentences tomorrow .
[ h / t : reddit userdarinda777 ]
- It ’s worth noting , though , that both adult male and women can risk strain or come off sure easy connective tissue ( such as those hold retinae or breasts in billet ) when they submit their bodies to unfeignedly speedy acceleration — so bungee cord jumper be wary .
