Pessimists Archive Presents: The Franklin Fallacy, Why We Misjudge New Technologies | Devcon SEA

Thu, Oct 2, 2025, 12:00 AM

People often dismiss emerging technologies by focusing only on their current limitations, overlooking their potential evolution. This tendency, seen throughout history—from the telegraph to Ethereum—stems from what can be called “The Franklin Fallacy.” When asked about the purpose of a hot air balloon, Benjamin Franklin famously responded, "What good is a newborn baby?" highlighting how judging a technology in its infancy is shortsighted. This talk explores the psychology of this fallacy. Speaker(s): Louis Anslow Skill level: Beginner Track: Real World Ethereum Keywords: e/acc, Marketing Follow us: https://twitter.com/efdevcon, https://twitter.com/ethereum, https://warpcast.com/devcon Learn more about devcon: https://www.devcon.org/ Learn more about ethereum: https://ethereum.org/ Visit the https://archive.devcon.org/ to gain access to the entire library of Devcon talks with the ease of filtering, playlists, personalized suggestions, decentralized access on Swarm, IPFS and more. Devcon is the Ethereum conference for developers, researchers, thinkers, and makers. Devcon SEA was held in Bangkok, Thailand on Nov 12 - Nov 15, 2024. Devcon is organized and presented by the Ethereum Foundation. To find out more, please visit https://ethereum.foundation/