I'm a secret lover of quotations. OK, not so secret now but anyway I found this page of bad predictions. Here are a few of my favorite technology predictions.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
Charles H. Duell, an official at the US patent office, 1899.
"Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop - because women like to get out of the house, like to 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.
"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 ordinary "horseless carriage" is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle."
Literary Digest, 1899.
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society, 1895.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), maker of big business mainframe computers, arguing against the PC in 1977.
"But what... is it good for?"
IBM executive Robert Lloyd, speaking in 1968 microprocessor, the heart of today's computers.
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
H. M. Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers, 1927.
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
A memo at Western Union, 1878 (or 1876).
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