Look at some of the things famous people have said
over the years....
"Man
will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances."
-- Dr.
Lee DeForest, "Father of Radio & Grandfather of
Television."
"The
bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."
- -
Admiral William Leahy , US Atomic Bomb Project
"There
is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom."
--
Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923
"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 travelled 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.
"640K
ought to be enough for anybody."
-- Bill Gates, 1981
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.)
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.
"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,
France .
"Everything
that can be invented has been invented,"
-- Charles H. Duell,
Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.
"The
super computer is technologically impossible.
It would take all of the
water that flows over Niagara Falls
to
cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required."
-- Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York
University
"I
don't know what use any one could find for a machine that would make
copies
of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself."
-- the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the
inventor to found Xerox.
"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.
And last but not least..."There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
