Post #3912732

2026-07-18 14:11 UTC

I keep seeing the "cars replaced horses" thing related to "AI." People keep comparing "AI" to cars (positively) without thinking about the fact that cars were forced on people (AAA bought up and destroyed tram lines, there were massive protests, etc), and are the primary driver of climate change that is currently on track to make complex human society impossible. Meanwhile, cities that weren't destroyed for cars, or that have reversed most of the damage, are some of the most desirable places to live. Maybe we could take the car analogy as a warning. Maybe it could be a reminder to think about how forcing technology on people against their will can reshape society in a profoundly negative way. The answer for cities has been to right-size transit. Eliminate cars wherever possible, maintain emergency vehicles and mobility aids, and find more efficient alternatives (bikes, trams, metros, and trains) where possible. I feel as though we can extrapolate from the metaphor. We do not have to repeat the mistake of reshaping society around a single, oversimplified, solution in order to benefit a tiny minority. Perhaps we can actually choose the right technologies based on use cases, rather than hype or dogma. Cars didn't replace horses. Cars replaced walkable cities, tram lines and mass transit, and children playing in the streets. "Cars replaced horses" to the benefit of a small group of elite men, at tremendous cost to literally everyone else. When people say, "AI is the new 'cars replacing horses'" they are saying something very specific about their privilege and intentions.

Replies (13)

@tbortels@infosec.exchange 2026-07-18 20:09

@Hex@kolektiva.social I'd add a more explicit point: cars didn't do anything. They are blameless. *People* replaced horses with cars, and they did it out of their own self-interest, not that of society. AI isn't doing a damn thing. People are. And AI doesn't replace humans - it displaces them. Often very poorly. I'd have less of an issue (but still issues) if it was a viable replacement. When you see "AI slop"? That's people who are phoning it in. When you see "AI replaced this call center"? No, some asshole did, and it's a poor replacement. Copyright violations, intellectual theft? People again. And when you see "This AI solved this proof" or made a scientific advancement? Yeah, people again. AI can be a very useful tool when you have smart people prompting and correcting and using the tool - but it's just a tool. Just as the assholes deserve blame, the successes are to the credit of the humans involved. The technology is interesting. But the people pushing it hard? Assholes.

Open ##3919144
@Hex@kolektiva.social 2026-07-18 15:50

Some old white dude decided to jump all over yelling "Ackchyually, no one forced you to buy a car!!", and I'm just blocking. This shit is so easy to research. Like, yeah, people were forced to buy a car by minimum parking zoning that spread out cities, mass transit being (very intentionally) destroyed, and giant cars that murder people. There are actual laws that very intentionally made things worse, and then there's the intentionally created prisoner's dilemma of ever expanding car sizes. This shit is extremely easy to research. At this point I'm just assuming it's trolls or the type of people who would be like "but no one has *proved* smoking causes cancer" back in the 90's. Yeah, that was a thing, and they sounded *just fucking like these people today.*

Open ##3919401
@livingpixel@indieweb.social 2026-07-18 19:07

@Hex@kolektiva.social When I first learned where the term "jaywalking" came from, I felt enormous sadness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaywalking

Open ##3921173
@Longspeak@bardicperspiration.club 2026-07-19 03:53

@Hex@kolektiva.social Cars replaced Horses, so Robots should replace People. Makes sense to me! /s

Open ##3925957
@Elizafox@social.treehouse.systems 2026-07-19 03:14

@Hex@kolektiva.social Meanwhile, the road (:P) not taken: electric cars existed in the early days, but they opted for the cheaper "use petroleum" approach rather than the electric approach. "What could have been" etc. People even noted back then it was stupid to use fuels that they knew would run out and weren't particularly good for people, and that the smart thing was to use renewable resources and find ways to harness that. Yes, they even knew about climate change, in the 1800s, when experiments were done with carbon dioxide, and yes people warned about the potential for planetary warming if done on scale. (There's this pervasive myth that somehow they were stupid in the past, they were not, just "the winner writes the history book" sort of deal).

Open ##3933779
@gbargoud@masto.nyc 2026-07-18 16:46

@Hex@kolektiva.social Around 1900 NYC had a population of 4-5 million and about 200k horses https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2021/02/the-unpleasant-side-of-life-with-horses-in-cities/ In 2020, NYC has a population of almost 9 million and 2 million cars We replaced each single horse with 5 cars in the part of the country with the lowest rate of car ownership, the numbers are probably higher everywhere else. There is absolutely no way that's just replacing horses.

Open ##3934702
@whathappened@c.im 2026-07-18 14:19

@Hex@kolektiva.social Here are some references to support what you're saying: https://c.im/@whathappened/113431391552749242

Open ##3944128
@Leendaal@rollenspiel.social 2026-07-18 14:34

@Hex@kolektiva.social and even with all that it needed a huge war to make it popular enough. And also replace bikes not just horses. I would like to add that the analogy works as bad when comparing it on a technical level. Given the task to transport something weighing 40-80kg for the most part. Therefore you move up to 2 tons, with high cost, that pollutes the whole environment. And then you arrive faster, well maybe, who knows there might be traffic, or maybe you just prompted the car wrong, wrong model? Idk

Open ##3951172
@yavien@social.hackerspace.pl 2026-07-19 20:35

@Hex@kolektiva.social this applies to textile industry too! i just read an article on OG luddites that claimed that "in the long run they won" because the global north got some workers rights. And like... tell that to the global south workers whose hands machine sew (because a human still does skilled labor!) tonnes of ultra fast fashion in sweatshops from fossil fuels processed by the same machines (spinning frames and looms) luddites destroyed. Tell that to the Atacama clothes wasteland!

Open ##3953613
@failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.to 2026-07-18 14:37

@Hex@kolektiva.social I'm sorry, this is just such total hippy bullshit no one force people to buy cars, just as no one forced people to buy color TVs or AC or washing machines as for the old tired myth that the car companies bought and destroyed the tramlines, iirc, the lines in Los Angeles were already failing when GM bought them and farmers gave up horses cause fuckng tractors are just so much fucking better , reality

Open ##3978770
@niomi@kolektiva.social 2026-07-18 16:15

@Hex@kolektiva.social and yet we still must drive

Open ##3983180
@juliette@mastodon.green 2026-07-20 08:36

@Hex@kolektiva.social I'm going to make this about me, or at least the area where I live. Recent newspaper headline: "car driver narrowly avoids pedestrian wearing dark clothes and ends up in the ditch." The headline makes it sound like wearing dark clothes and walking on public land is the problem. Turns out the car driver was drunk-driving and trying to illegally overtake two other cars. Car culture has created an entire victim-blaming culture to avoid questioning why we can't just walk places anymore.

Open ##4048881
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai 2026-07-20 15:04

@Hex@kolektiva.social Cars were an economic pathway decided by automobile and oil companies. Walkable and car free communities throughout Holland are an example of a different decision. It’s a decision that creates a healthier safer, quieter and much less expensive community for the inhabitants as well as the government and it’s more economically vibrant. So yeah, AI is like cars in remarkably important ways

Open ##4049258