Progress May Not Be Lethal After All

After much protest and anxiety, an Ikea opens in Brooklyn and turns out to not be so horrible.

Every person in America protests Rupert Murdoch‘s purchase of the Wall Street Journal, but it’s actually looking pretty good.

Back in 1966, Time magazine predicted that “remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop — because women like to get out of the house, like to handle the merchandise, like to be able to change their minds.” (On the other hand, Time believed in the Internet: “One thing people almost certainly will want is electronic ‘information retrieval’: the contents of libraries and other forms of information or education will be stored in a computer and will be instantly obtainable at home by dialing a code.” Ironically, that shrewd prediction is spelling big trouble for Time and other magazines.)

It is probably hard to think of any progress or disruptive technology that hasn’t been met with fear, anxiety, and predictions of failure. What are your favorite examples?