10 Absurd Technology Predictions Made by Experts; You won’t believe what these experts actually predicted
There’s a long-standing tradition among scientists, engineers, and industrialists. Every new year, they make predictions about a future.
Technology has proven to be extraordinarily slippery over the past century. Despite the vast information that industry insiders have had at they are fingertips, they’ve made some pretty terrible forecasts over the years.
The predictions that history remembers most are those that demonstrate spectacular misjudgment, misunderstanding, overly optimistic hyperbole, self-delusion, or good old-fashion wishful thinking.
Below, we have listed our top 10 of the very worst predictions as illustrated by Ilya Pestov, which show how even the titans of industry don’t always know what they’re talking about. Whether they were predictions about technological progress, adoption rates, or market potential, we can all agree that these predictions were dead wrong.
1. 1876: “The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.” — Sir William Preece, chief engineer, British Post Office.
2. 1946: “Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” — Darryl Zanuck, film producer, co-founder of 20th Century Fox.
3. 1957: “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.” — Editor of Prentice Hall business books.
4. 1961: “There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television or radio service inside the United States.” — T.A.M. Craven, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner.
5. 1977: “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” — Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corp.
6. 1981: “No one will need more than 637KB of memory for a personal computer. 640KB ought to be enough for anybody.” — Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of Microsoft.
7. 1981: “Cellular phones will absolutely not replace local wire systems.” — Marty Cooper, inventor.
8. 1989: “We will never make a 32-bit operating system.” — Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of Microsoft.
9. 1995: “I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” — Robert Metcalfe, founder of 3Com, inventor of Ethernet.
10. 2003: “The subscription model of buying music is bankrupt. I think you could make available the Second Coming in a subscription model, and it might not be successful.” — Steve Jobs, in Rolling Stone
Which of them do you find the most absurd prediction? Ours is 1, 5 & 10!