Worst Predictions Ever — Hard To Believe They Said It
“Nuclear powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within 10 years.” — Alex Lewyt, President of the Lewyt Vacuum Cleaner Company in 1955
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” — Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM in 1943
“There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” — Albert Einstein in 1932
“Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.” — Dr. Dionysius Lardner in 1830
“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” — Ken Olsen, founder, Digital Equipment Corp in 1977
“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.” — Western Union internal memo in 1876
“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” — H. M. Warner, founder of the Warner Brothers
“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?” — -Associates of David Sarnoff responding to the latter’s call for investment in the radio in 1921
“The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.” — Sir William Preece, chief engineer, British Post Office in 1876
“Fooling around with alternating current (AC) is just a waste of time. Nobody will use it, ever.” — Thomas Edison in 1889
“The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.” — William Preece, British Post Office in 1876
“Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” — Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox in 1946
“Two years from now, spam will be solved.” — Bill Gates in 2004
“Before man reaches the moon, your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail.” — Arthur Summerfield, U.S. Postmaster General in 1959
“I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” — Robert Metcalfe, founder of 3Com in 1995
“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.” — Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO in 2007
“To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive, and then return to earth — all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances.” — Lee DeForest, American radio pioneer and inventor of the vacuum tube, in 1926
“No one will need more than 637KB of memory for a personal computer. 640KB ought to be enough for anybody.” — Bill Gates
“X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” — Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society in 1883
“Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical (sic) and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.” — Simon Newcomb
“How, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you, excuse me, I have not the time to listen to such nonsense.” — Napoleon Bonaparte, when told of Robert Fulton’s steamboat, 1800s
“I must confess that my imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering at sea.” — HG Wells, British novelist, in 1901
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” — Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society in 1895
That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced. -Scientific American, January 2, 1909.
Well-informed people know that it is impossible to transmit the human voice over wires as may be done with dots and dashes of Morse code, and that, were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value. -Boston newspaper, 1865.
In the future, computers will … fit onto your face, plug into your ear. And after that — they’ll simply melt. They’ll become fabric … Fabric and air and electrons and light. Magic handkerchiefs with instant global access. You’ll wear them around your neck. You’ll make tents from them if you want. They will be everywhere, throwaway. Like denim. Like paper. Like a child’s kite. This is coming a lot faster than anyone realizes. — William Gibson, author
