Amusing predictions (kitmouse, see #13)

[ellienihon]

1. "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
-- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of
science, 1949.

2. "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
-- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

3. "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country,
and talked with the best people, and I can assure you
that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
-- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.

4. "But what ... is it good for?"
-- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM,
1968, commenting on the microchip.

5. "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder
of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.

6. "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously
considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently
of no value"
-- Western Union internal memo, 1876.

7. "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value.
Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
-- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for
investment in the radio in the 1920s

8. "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order
to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible."
-- A Yale Univ. management professor in response to Fred Smith's
paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service.
(Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

9. "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
-- H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

10. "I'm just glad it will be Clark Gable who is falling on his face
and not Gary Cooper."
-- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role
in "Gone With The Wind"

11. "A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research
reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."
-- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

12. "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
-- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962

13. "You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development
across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of
life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development
as an unalterable condition of weight training."
-- Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "insolvable" problem
by inventing Nautilus.

14. "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
-- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929

15. "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
-- Marecha Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy,
Ecole Superieure de Guerre. (Superior school of War)

16. "Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."
-- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

17. The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut
from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon."
-- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon,
Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, 1873.

and finally.......

18. 64K ought to be enough memory for anybody." Bill Gates, 1981

Comments

[markmc03.livejournal.com]

Interesting thing about #2, IBM sold at least one of their computers to Germany before the start of World War II. It was the only way the Nazi's were able to operate the death camps. (Why do you think everyone was tattooed with a number? That was to correspond with a punch card fed into a computer). The horrible thing was they actually serviced their computers in Germany throughout WWII and received their last cheque from the Allied Command when they took over administration for Germany at the close of the war. I guess they figured as long as they made money for their shareholders, they didn't care what the computers were used for.

The one you are missing, though, is the 1880's prediction of the fellow in charge of US patents that everything that could be invented had been invented and already patented. What a visionary.

Cheers