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gwern comments on Rationality Quotes: February 2011 - Less Wrong
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--Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito: Selección, p. 430
Can you give some examples of when that has happened? I’m having trouble of thinking of any. The widespread use of computers seems to have been a great success, on the whole.
Who said it was about computers per se? I didn't.
I was personally thinking more of electricity and radiation. Electric belts! Electroshock therapy! Electric toothbrushes! The mind as a power grid! Radium salt supplements! Radioactive watches! Well actually we still use tritium for that. (Or to take a more recent example, microfilm. "Let's put everything on microfilm and shred all the original newspapers and books! What could possibly go wrong?")
We may be a little too close to the computer to see the silliest and most grotesque solutions it has provided, although The Daily WTF may be a good start.
I know you didn’t mention computers; it was just the first example that came to mind. It seemed like if the quote would apply to anything, it would apply to computers most of all, but it didn’t. But good points about electricity and about being computers being too recent.