Future-Focused, But Wrong!

They Said What?

“The earth is the center of the universe.” 

PTOLEMY
Egyptian astronomer

“Nothing of importance happened today.”

King George III of England
July 4, 1776.

“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

“Flight by machines heavier than air is impractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.”

SIMON NEWCOMB
an astronomer of some note
1902

“Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.”

GROVER CLEVELAND
President of the United States
1905

“Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” 

Marshal Ferdinand Foch
French Military Strategist
1911

“It is an idle dream to imagine that automobiles will take the place of railways in the long distance movement of passengers.”

American Road Congress
1913

“There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom.”

ROBERT MILLIKAN
Nobel Prize winner in physics
1920

“Babe Ruth made a big mistake when he gave up pitching.”

TAUS SPEAKER
1921

“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”

HARRY WARNER
Warner Brothers Pictures
1927

“I think there is a world market for about five computers.”

THOMAS J. WATSON
Chairman of IBM
1943

 “We don’t like their sound. Groups with guitars are on the way out.” 

DECCA Records
rejecting the Beatles
1962 

“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.”

KEN OLSEN
President of Digital Equipment Corp 1977


I wonder what beliefs we hold today
will be proven wrong in the future?

Adapted from a powerpoint created by John Quashnoc