Seeing the Future

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"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 ***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 3-M
"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
H-P 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.

"Drill for oil? You mean dig 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."
Marchal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure
deGuerre.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. 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.