When “WOW!” Meets “OMG!”: A Friendly Look at How New Stuff Always Shakes Us Up

Isn’t it funny how whenever some shiny new thing rolls onto the scene, we all get hit by the double whammy of excitement and fear? It’s like the universe’s way of keeping us on our toes. Whether it was when our ancestors first harnessed fire, or just last year when ChatGPT started spitting out essays and jokes, humanity has always been caught in the “WOW!” and “OMG!” swirl.

Let’s take a quick stroll down memory lane to see how history has reacted when innovation first hit the streets:

• The Printing Press (15th Century): Johannes Gutenberg’s invention unleashed a tidal wave of books, ideas, and knowledge. The “WOW!”? Suddenly, words weren’t just for monks and kings anymore. The “OMG!”? People feared it would ruin the Church’s power and corrupt minds with all this newfangled information. Imagine the first book-burning panic parties!

• The Steam Engine (18th Century): The Industrial Revolution blazed ahead thanks to the steam engine. “WOW!” – faster transport, booming factories, cities growing overnight. “OMG!” – “Will the machines take our jobs? Will the air get so smoky we can’t breathe?” Spoiler: The air did get smoky, but technology marched on.

• The Telephone (19th Century): Alexander Graham Bell magically made voices travel through wires. “WOW!” – Wow, you can actually hear Uncle Joe’s voice without a post! “OMG!” – “But what if strangers listen in? What if it makes people lazy and face-to-face chats obsolete?” Trust me, the telegraph skeptics weren’t far behind.

• The Computer & Internet (20th / 21st Century): From giant room-sized machines crunching numbers to smartphones that fit in our pockets, “WOW!” became a daily ritual. The “OMG!” whispered about surveillance, job losses, and robots taking over the world.

• And now AI: The latest star in this ongoing saga. The “WOW!” is huge — personalized assistants, new creative tools, solving problems in medicine and science. The “OMG!”? It’s of course about jobs, ethics, and an AI apocalypse that Hollywood just can’t get enough of.

What’s our takeaway here? The future has always been a delicious cocktail of amazement and anxiety. Those earliest adopters felt the same jitters we do now, and guess what? They figured it out. The key is to remember that humans have a tremendous capacity to adapt, blend new and old, and find meaningful ways to make technology work for us — especially for our kids stepping into worlds we can barely imagine.

Try talking with AI about AI — the perfect example of walking hand-in-hand with the future and questioning it ” … as the story grows”.

At World of Water (WOW), we’re ever ready to greet tomorrow with goodwill and to grow greater awareness of water and its ways. Our next “WOW!” might just be the best chapter of all in humanity’s ongoing story.