Glad-I-Ate-Her

The absurdity of supposed experts of their time...

What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives traveling twice as fast as stagecoaches?
- The Quarterly Review, England (March 1825)

The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera. It is absurd to go on seeking it. . . . Knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient.
- Dr. Alfred Velpeau (1839) French surgeon

Men might as well project a voyage to the Moon as attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic Ocean.
- Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1838) Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, University College, London

The foolish idea of shooting at the moon is an example of the absurd length to which vicious specialization will carry scientists working in thought-tight compartments.
- A.W. Bickerton (1926) Professor of Physics and Chemistry, Canterbury College, New Zealand

[W]hen the Paris Exhibition closes electric light will close with it and no more be heard of.
- Erasmus Wilson (1878) Professor at Oxford University

Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.
- Editorial in the Boston Post (1865)

That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced.
- Scientific American, Jan. 2, 1909

Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.
- Lord Kelvin, ca. 1895, British mathematician and physicist

Radio has no future
- Lord Kelvin, ca. 1897.

While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming.
- Lee DeForest, 1926 (American radio pioneer)

There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.
- Albert Einstein, 1932.

Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 19,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps only weigh 1.5 tons.
- Popular Mechanics, March 1949.

There is no need for any individual to have a computer in their home.
- Ken Olson, 1977, President, Digital Equipment Corp.

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 lastout 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.


Glad

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I'm "Glad I Ate Her" because the payback was worth it!!

Supple Cow

Word.

__________________
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
(Michael Jordan)

krwlz

Well, at least he didnt say out right it was impossible.

Just that at his time, there was no indication of it being possible.
Clearly the mark of a smart man.

Some of the others though, are hilarious. I wonder what people today are saying is impossible, that will become commonplace for the people of tomorrow...

Giltwist

No one will ever need more than 640KB of RAM.
-Bill Gates

Kadath

"I predict that in the future, computers will be twice as big and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will be able to afford one." -- Professor John Frink, 196- (pronounced nintey-sixty-something)

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it's quiet in here

Peetster

That Kelvin guy must have been a hoot at parties.

losthellhound

Oh it gets better

"X-rays will prove to be a hoax."
"In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting."

and my favorite:

"I accept no theory of gravitation. Present science has no right to attempt to explain gravitation. We know nothing about it. We simply know NOTHING about it."

I think thats where he bit the head off the puppy and took another shot

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"Life is possible only with illusions. And so, the question for the science of mental health must become an absolutely new and revolutionary one, yet one that reflects the essence of the human condition: On what level of illusion does one live?"
-- Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death

happyraul

while our technology advances, ought not our predictions also become more accurate? As such, modern predictions would tend to be true right?

Giltwist

The Pessimistic Induction:
Since in the past 150 years, many theories have been shown, at least technically, false. So, inductively, most of the theories currently accepted will be shown, at least technically, false in the next 150 years.

phukraut

who was it that said if an old professor says something is possible, then he almost certainly is right, but if he says it's impossible, then he's almost certainly wrong?

mciprepaid

very interesting

balderdash111

It's one of the most famous false predictions out there (other than Nostradamus), so I'm surprised this hasn't come up already:

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
-Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899

goddfather40

Thank god for the transistor.

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My name is goddfather40 and I approved this message.

I got ho's and I got bitches,
In C++ I branch with switches
-MC Plus+

mystmarimatt

they're all eXpurrts

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Words of Wisdom:

If you could really get to know someone and know that they weren't lying to you, then you would know the world was real. Because you could agree on things, you could compare notes. That must be why people get married or make Art. So they'll be able to really know something and not go insane.

forseti-6

that is "640K ought to be enough for anybody"

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"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss

KellyC

If only theres a time machine. We'd go back in time, bring them to the present, and look at their STOKED FACEs.

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Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe?
Me: Shit happens.

CSflim

Exactly.
This is the most ridiculous quote that seems to appear absolutely everywhere.

If I was talking to a friend about buying a new computer, and I say to him "2Gb of Ram ought to be enough for anybody", does it mean that I am to be a subject of ridicule 20 years down the line? (when 2Gb of ram is going to look exceedingly quaint, beside the latest 500Tb chips!)

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JohnnyRoyale

Famous prediction/quote:

"We're a copier company, besides there will never be a market for these things"
- The CEO of Xerox, just before he sold off all Xerox's technologies to Apple Computer, which used them in the macintosh.

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I'm gonna be rich and famous, as soon I invent a device that lets you stab people in the face over the internet.

bacon_masta

hadn't heard some of those before, great post

Bill O'Rights

Isn't that the same guy that now does "Ding Fries Are Done?*

*With apologies to the thousands that work hard every day to serve us our Extra Value Meal.

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"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

FleaCircus

This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I've had the song stuck in my head for a couple of months now.

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"We must have waffles. We must all have waffles, forthwith. Oh, we must think.
We must all have waffles and think, each and every one of us to the very best of his ability."
-- Professor Goldthwait Higginson Dorr, Ph.D.

mastboyx

a true eyeopener

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Ignorance Is Bliss

i_am_not_worthy

Really good post - worthy of the reflections we often do. They all stand out - nothing is impossible I suppose.

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It is not a mistake, but an experience.

cataklysm

wow, thats pretty cool