Cars-Horses Technology Analogy

Commenters repeatedly analogize skepticism toward emerging technologies (likely AI) to historical dismissals of early automobiles as inferior to horses, arguing that revolutionary changes require time and infrastructure.

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20
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Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
9
2008
9
2009
29
2010
38
2011
59
2012
69
2013
100
2014
80
2015
101
2016
144
2017
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2018
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2019
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2020
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2021
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2022
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2023
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2024
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2025
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2026
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Keywords

III UK a.k HN horses cars horse car automobiles trains roads automobile gas drawn

Sample Comments

drcross Jul 8, 2016 View on HN

That's like saying cars are useless a hundred years ago because they were slower than horses.

maze-le Jul 5, 2017 View on HN

I bet people had the same thing to say about cars in the early 20th century (not without some justification though).

noonespecial Apr 10, 2019 View on HN

That sounds suspiciously like the "just get a horse" argument about the first cars.

IshKebab Jun 17, 2025 View on HN

This is like saying the car is nothing new because various forms of wheeled transport have been around for centuries.Typical HN.

coldtea Apr 25, 2018 View on HN

In the sense that a car is a reinvention of a horse buggy.

croisillon May 8, 2023 View on HN

yeah, who gonna pay for the horse carriages with all those automobile inventions?

ta8645 Jul 17, 2025 View on HN

People said the same thing about the horseless carriage in the early days of the automobile; they could cite evidence of the superior dependability of a horse and buggy. Things eventually changed. Let's see how things shake out from here.

random_cynic Mar 13, 2024 View on HN

Yes, the horse carriage drivers had similar lines of thoughts when they saw first gen automobiles.

jpwagner Apr 24, 2013 View on HN

"flying car" is just the modern version of "faster horse"

Piskvorrr Feb 26, 2020 View on HN

Yup, this is before the car revolution took off.