Sunday, July 19, 2009

30 Failed Predictions About Technology

This list is compiled by someone who's first language may not be English but these 30 failed predictions are amusing and well rendered.

Here's a timely example:

In 1926, Lee DeForest again predicted that

“To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive, and then return to earth – all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances”.

The thing to remember is that Lee DeForest was inventor of the vacuum tube as well.

And this bit of breakneck bluster:

Martin Van Buren, Governor of New York, in 1830 wrote to the president that

“Dear Mr. President: The canal system of this country is being threatened by a new form of transportation known as ‘railroads’ … As you may well know, Mr. President, ‘railroad’ carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by ‘engines’ which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed”.