It's hard to miss the similarity between your book's title and Cliff Stoll's 1995 Silicon Snake Oil, an indictment of the general concept of the "information superhighway" that was starting to resonate with the public. Stoll is a really smart guy, but that particular book hasn't held up too well:

   Few aspects of daily life require computers...They're 
   irrelevant to cooking, driving, visiting, negotiating, 
   eating, hiking, dancing, speaking, and gossiping. You 
   don't need a computer to...recite a poem or say a 
   prayer." Computers can't, Stoll claims, provide a richer
   or better life.

So, was this something that you guys were conscious of when you chose your own book's title? How well have you future-proofed your central thesis?

Yes, we're aware! Fortunately our book is not a broad indictment of AI :) And none of our claims are premised on tasks people can do remaining out of reach for AI. More here: https://www.normaltech.ai/p/faq-about-the-book-and-our-writi...

Our more recent essay (and ongoing book project) "AI as Normal Technology" is about our vision of AI impacts over a longer timescale than "AI Snake Oil" looks at https://www.normaltech.ai/p/ai-as-normal-technology

I would categorize our views as techno-optimist, but people understand that term in many different ways, so you be the judge.

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