The history of transportation shows a consistent pattern whenever a new type of transportation is introduced - people often become fearful, angry, and sometimes violent. That fear is the reason for the quote on the home page:

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas.  I am frightened by the old ones.”

John Cage

I want to be clear at the outset of that a certain amount of fear is appropriate for anything that is new and especially when commercial interests are involved in either promoting their technology or fighting against the technology of a competitor. New technologies need to be tested and evaluated by others whose sole interest is the public good. “The new” needs to be tested to see how well it fits in with the old: to see what works, what is safe, and what people are comfortable with. Fear of new ideas IS GOOD as long as we balance our fears with openness and curiosity. Initial fears should therefore come with questions and the desire to explore.

We need to be constantly aware of the powerful forces that don’t want a balance of fear and openness. Most of us may be aware of how politics muddies the waters using fear as a weapon. Business will also weigh in with massive financial weight to feed media with misinformation and to obtain political influence. Some media also partners with fear, cynicism, and negativity, using these to bolster their markets. This tendency feeds a long-standing practice - “if it bleeds, it leads.” Media and entertainment can use our natural inclination towards end-of-the-world drama as a marketing tool.

So, it is not fear alone that is the problem. The danger comes when fear is bound with other forces - Politics, Monied Interests, Ignorance, and Cynicism. Together these align against progress and hope and leave us desperate and deflated.

Valid fears, met with curiosity and concern, lead in a different direction where we can dare - can we say it? - even hope. Fears of technology sometimes have easy solutions and other times get addressed over time. What does not work now often works later when those who care and have the skills take things to the next level. Monied interests work both ways and there are many examples where business can weigh in to do good and, at the same time, make a profit.

History may be a guide to help us see, in hindsight, how fears often go too far and limit progress. History shows how fears can be addressed with an open mind.

At first, we can walk through history looking at the development of various forms of transportation and other technologies that we are now familiar and comfortable with.

• Examples are given below that will seem funny and surprising, especially those of an earlier era.

• Other more modern examples, however, show how fears have blocked technologies for decades. One can imagine the numerous lives that have been lost or set back from cautiously holding fast to the status quo and being close minded towards “the new.”

Bikes - Doctors warned women that bicycling was bad for their health: that women were too fragile and sensitive for the exertion of bike riding, and that habitual bike riding could damage internal organs and lead to infertility or even death. Members of the clergy preached against women riding bicycles, and called bloomers “outrageous” and an “abomination”.

Why Did Victorian Men Hate Women on Bicycles? (amazingwomeninhistory.com)

Cars - According to Horatio’s Drive, a 2003 PBS documentary by Ken Burns about the cross-country trip described above, Vermont passed a law requiring a person to walk in front of the car waving a red flag, which rather defeated the purpose of using the car in the first place. In Glencoe, Illinois, someone stretched a length of steel cable across a road in an effort to stop “the devil wagons.” Some cities banned automobiles outright.

Cars - Stone throwing was common. There are many recorded examples from Germany and Switzerland, but things were worse in the Netherlands, according to a pioneering German woman motorist, who recorded in her diary in 1905 that “a journey by automobile through Holland is dangerous, since most of the rural population hates motorists fanatically. We even encountered older men, their faces contorted with anger, who, without any provocation, threw fist-sized stones at us.” The more typical culprits were boys, but the fact that their misbehavior was so common suggests that parents chose not to discourage their escapades. Angry young farmers sometimes deployed another readily available weapon: a bucket of fresh dung. Or they strewed nails and broken glass on roads. Between 1904 and 1906, farmers around Rochester, Minnesota, plowed up roads to prevent cars from passing. Farmers near Sacramento, California, dug ditches across roads in 1909 and actually trapped thirteen cars. (Source: Autophobia, Love and Hate in the Automotive Age Brian Ladd)

The Airplane

Seat Belts were invented before cars even existed.

(DRAFT, TO BE DEVELOPED)

Secondly, we can review the complex and rapidly changing world of newer technology, such as robots and autonomous vehicles. What are the guideposts as society is still working out a good balance between fear and curiosity.