Predict this....

[minks]

Here is a few predictions that kind of fell .... short.....

In 1878, the Hartford Woman's Friday Club, one of the oldest women's organizations, published a paper and concluded that electricity, though an interesting experiment, was too uncertain and dangerous to be put to practical use.

In 1889, at a conference of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sir William Crookes reported that with the world rapidly running out of fertile, easily cultivable virgin land, population growth would lead to mass famine by 1930 unless the production of nitrate fertilizer could be increased dramatically.

"God himself could not sink this ship."
- Deckhand on the Titanic, April 10, 1912.

"I predict the Internet…will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse."
- Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld, 1995.

[minks]

Amusing eh...

"Cancer and consumption will be as easily cured as influenza or {diarrhea}.
- Reverend Thomas De Witt Talmage, on the state of medicine in 100 years, 1893


"Famous in our circles ins the story of the visiting English banker who in 1948 upon seeing our model 95 camera commented, 'Very interesting, but why would one want a picture in a minute?'"
- Polaroid founder Dr. Edwin Land in the 1979 Polaroid Annual Report.


"Boards of health will have destroyed all mosquito haunts and breeding grounds, drained all stagnant pools, filled in all swamp-lands, and chemically treated all still-water streams. The extermination of the horse and its stable will reduce the house-fly."
- John Watkins, The Ladies Home Journal. 1900.


"The final proof of the whole cosmic ice theory will be obtained when the first landing on the ice-coated surface of the Moon takes place."
- Horbiger Institute pamphlet, 1953.

[BabyRider]

Sort of like people believing that television and automobiles were just a "passing fad." Funny stuff, Minks!!

[minks]

Originally Posted by BabyRider

Sort of like people believing that television and automobiles were just a "passing fad." Funny stuff, Minks!!

yeah no kidding. Funny too, in the 60's there were funny predictions of robots doing our housework, now that is downright sad it never happened ahahaha

[Bryn Mawr]

Originally Posted by BabyRider

Sort of like people believing that television and automobiles were just a "passing fad." Funny stuff, Minks!!

The total world market for computers will be five units - IBM 1952

No-one will ever need more than 640K of memory in a PC - Bill Gates 1979

[minks]

"Thou knowest no man can split the atom."
- physicist John Dalton, 1803



"Brain work will cause [the 'new woman'] to become bald, while increasing masculinity and contempt for beauty will induce the growth of hair on the face. In the future, therefore, woman will be bald and will wear long mustaches and patriarchal beards."
- Berlin University professor Hans Friedenthal, 1914 you gotta love that one

"Heavier than air flying machines are impossible."
- physicist William Thompson, Lord Kelvin, 1895.

"Aircraft will be provided with sleeping compartments and dining saloons."
- Norman Bel Geddes, "Ten Years From Now," Ladies Home Journal, 1931