It used to be everything ran on mechanical machines and analog electronics. That stuff failed all the fucking time. We're no worse off today with software.
> Thus far, the electronic age has been much less bloody.
You're not looking at the right signs.
In terms of pollution and environmental damage, including with direct human impact such as microplastics, things have been getting worse pretty much exponentially quicker every year _since_ the end of WW2.
I'm responding to the implication that "mechanical shit" is local and thus less damaging.
Since they mentioned nukes it seemed like an obvious example where local things can be catastrophic.
The theoretical risk of electronic things malfunctioning in some global way that they mentioned has never resulted in any nuclear weapons being deployed, but we've actually seen the local mechanical approach they disregard be devastating.
