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Bad Predictions about Great Inventions
Published on 3/28/2006
Events
«We will bury you.»Nikita Krushchev, Soviet Premier,
predicting Soviet communism will win over U.S. capitalism
, 1958.«
Everything that can be invented has been invented
.»Charles H. Duell, an official at the US patent office, 1899.«I see
no good reasons why
the views given in this volume
should shockthe religious sensibilities
of anyone.»
Charles Darwin
, in the foreword to his book, The Origin of Species, 1869.«Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.»Irving Fisher, economics professor at Yale University, 1929.«If anything remains more or less
unchanged
, it will be
the role of women
.»David Riesman, conservative American social scientist, 1967.«It will be gone by June.»Variety, passing
judgement on rock 'n roll in 1955
.«
Democracy will be dead by 1950
.»John Langdon-Davies, A Short History of The Future, 1936.«A short-lived satirical pulp.»TIME, writing off Mad magazine in 1956.«And for the tourist who really wants to get away from it all,
safaris in Vietnam
»Newsweek,
predicting popular holidays for the late 1960s
.«
Four or five frigates will do the business
without any military force.» -– British prime minister LordNorth,
on dealing with the rebellious American colonies
, 1774.«In all likelihood world inflation is over.»International Monetary Fund Ceo, 1959.«This antitrust thing will blow over.»Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft.«
Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop
- because women like to get out of the house, liketo handle merchandise, like to be able to change their minds.»TIME, 1966,
in one sentence writing off e-commerce
long before anyone had ever heard of it.«They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist-»Last words of Gen. John Sedgwick, spoken as he looked out over the parapet at enemy lines during theBattle of Spotsylvania in 1864.«Our country has deliberately undertaken a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive andfar reaching in purpose." -– Herbert Hoover, on Prohibition, 1928.«It will be years -
not in my time - before a woman will become Prime Minister
.»
Margaret Thatcher
, future Prime Minister, October 26th, 1969.
«Read my lips:
NO NEW TAXES
.»
George Bush, 1988
.«
You will be home before the leaves have fallen
from the trees.» -– Kaiser Wilhelm,
to the Germantroops
, August 1914.«This is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peacewith honor.
I believe it is peace for our time
.» -– Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister, September 30th,
1938
.«That virus is a pussycat.» -– Dr. Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology professor at U.C. Berkeley, on HIV,1988.«
The case is a loser
.» -– Johnnie Cochran,
on soon-to-be client O.J.'s chances
of winning, 1994.«
Reagan doesn't have that presidential look
.» -– United Artists Executive,
rejecting Reagan as leadin 1964 film
The Best Man.«Capitalist production begets, with the inexorability of a law of nature, its own negation.»Karl Marx.«Sensible and responsible
women do not want to vote
.»Grover Cleveland, U.S. President, 1905.«Man
will not fly for 50 years
.»
Wilbur Wright
, American aviation pioneer, to brother Orville,
after a disappointing flying experiment
,1901 (their first successful flight was in 1903).«I am
tired of all this sort of thing called science
here... We have spent millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it should be stopped.»Simon Cameron, U.S. Senator, on the Smithsonian Institute,
1901
.«The Americans are good about making fancy cars and refrigerators, but
that doesn't mean they areany good at making aircraft
. They are bluffing. They are excellent at bluffing.»Hermann
Goering
, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, 1942.«With over fifteen types of foreign cars already on sale here, the
Japanese auto industry isn't likely tocarve out a big share of the market
for itself.»Business Week, August 2, 1968.«The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no limit to this fever for writing; every one must be anauthor; some out of vanity, to acquire celebrity and raise up a name, others for the sake of mere gain.»Martin Luther, German Reformation leader, Table Talk, 1530s(?).«Ours has been the first [expedition], and
doubtless to be the last
, to visit this profitless locality.»Lt. Joseph Ives, after visiting the
Grand Canyon
in 1861.«There is no doubt that
the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction
. Asthis operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have producedthem and who guard them.»General Tommy Franks, March 22nd,
2003
.
Light Bulb
«... good enough for our transatlantic friends ... but
unworthy of the attention
of practical or scientificmen.»British Parliamentary Committee, referring to Edison's light bulb, 1878.«Such startling announcements as these
should be deprecated as being unworthy of science
andmischievous to its true progress.»Sir William Siemens, on Edison's light bulb, 1880.«Everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize
it as a conspicuous failure
.»Henry Morton, president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, on Edison's light bulb, 1880.
Automobiles
«The horse is here to stay but the
automobile is only a novelty
, a fad.»The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford's lawyer not toinvest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903.«That the automobile
has practically reached the limit of its development
issuggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radicalnature have been introduced.»
Scientific American
, Jan. 2 edition,
1909
.«The ordinary "horseless carriage" is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price willprobably fall in the future, it will
never, of course, come into as common use
as the bicycle.»Literary Digest, 1899.
Airplanes
«Flight by
machines heavier than air
is unpractical (sic) and
insignificant
, if not utterly impossible.» - Simon Newcomb; The Wright Brothers flew at Kittyhawk18 months later. Newcomb was not impressed.«Heavier-than-air
flying machines are impossible
.»Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British RoyalSociety, 1895.«It is apparent to me that the possibilities of the aeroplane, which two or three years ago were thought tohold the solution to the [flying machine] problem, have been exhausted, and that we must turn elsewhere.»Thomas Edison, American inventor, 1895.«Airplanes are interesting toys but of
no military value
.»Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre, 1904.«There will
never be a bigger plane
built.»A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that holds ten people.
Computers
«Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes andweighs 30 tons,
computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubesand weigh only 1.5 tons
.»Popular Mechanics, March 1949.
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