Famous last words on technology and predictions of the future.

["John and Laurie Danahy" <JDANAHY@turbonet.com>]

John and Laurie Danahy
jdanahy@turbonet.com

> 
> Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
> 
>     Popular Mechanics
>     Forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
> 
> I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
> 
>     Thomas Watson
>     Chairman of IBM, 1943
> 
> 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
> 
> But what ... is it good for?
> 
>     Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM,  1968,
>     commenting on the microchip.
> 
> There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
> 
>     Ken Olson
>     President, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
> 
> This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as
a
> means of communication.  The device is inherently of no value to us.
> 
>     Western Union internal memo, 1876.
> 
> 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.
> 
> The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better
> than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible.
> 
>     A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's
paper
>     proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to
found 
>     Federal Express Corp.)
> 
> Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?
> 
>     H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
> 
> I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary
> Cooper.
> 
>     Gary Cooper 
>     On his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."
> 
> 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.
> 
> We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.
> 
>     Decca Recording Co. 
>     Rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
> 
> Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.
> 
>     Lord Kelvin
>     president
>     Royal Society, 1895.
> 
> If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The
> literature was full of examples that said you can't do this.
> 
>     Spencer Silver 
>     On the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3M Post-It Notepads.
> 
> So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even
built
> with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll
> give
> it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for
you.'
> And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said,
> 'Hey,
> we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'
> 
>     Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs 
>     On attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak's

>     personal computer.
> 
> Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction
and
> the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. 
He
> seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.
> 
>     1921 New York Times 
>     Editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.
> 
> 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 "unsolvable" problem by 
>     inventing Nautilus.
> 
> Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? 
You're
> crazy.
> 
>     Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill
for 
>     oil in 1859.
> 
> Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.
> 
>     Irving Fisher
>     Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
> 
> Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.
> 
>     Marechal Ferdinand Foch
>     Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
> 
> Everything that can be invented has been invented.
> 
>     Charles H. Duell
>     Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.
> 
> Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.
> 
>     Pierre Pachet
>     Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
> 
> 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, appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria
1873.
> 
> 640K ought to be enough for anybody.
> 
>     Bill Gates
>     1981