-: [rti4empowerment] Famous last words

Friends,

It is quite humbling to see the views expressed by wise people and realize that they were quite wrong !

Dhirendra Krishna

"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances."
-- Dr. Lee DeForest, "Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television."

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"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."
- - Admiral William Leahy , US Atomic Bomb Project

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"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom."
-- Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923

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"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
-- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

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"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
-- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

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"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."
--The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

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"But what is it good for?"
-- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

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"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
-- Bill Gates, 1981

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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.

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"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value.
Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
-- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

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"The concept is interesting and well-formed,
but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible,"
-- A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service.
(Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
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"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling
on his face and not Gary Cooper,"
--Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

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"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make,"
-- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

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"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out,"
-- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

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"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible,"
-- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

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"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment.
The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this,"
- - Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.

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"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy,"
-- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

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"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
-- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University , 1929.

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"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value,"
-- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre , France .

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"Everything that can be invented has been invented,"
-- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.
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"The super computer is technologically impossible.
It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool
the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required."
-- Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University

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"I don't know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself."
-- Col. Watson, the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox.

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"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."
-- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse , 1872

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"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon,"
-- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

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And last but not least...

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977