[pwillia7]

Now imagine if this was written about the first steam engines being used inefficiently to pull coal up out the ground and pump out the water. It's so expensive -- is this really more effective than just hiring 50 men? We all know how that ended up...

[simonw]

> We all know how that ended up...

It ended up with investors losing their shirts time and time again - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_Mania and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893 for example - but we did get some very useful infrastructure out of it.

[Gud]

That's not really how it "ended up"? Yes, there are always losers when investing in new technologies.

But the steam engine was an amazing invention, and ended up propelling humanity forward.

[krupan]

It ended with global warming from burning too much coal. I'm not sure that's the comparison you are trying to make though