Predictions that didn't happen
Even the most brilliant minds have made wrong predictions about the future. At the time they were first made, they probably did not seem as absurd as they do now. The future has arrived and it looks nothing like these failed predictions...
1. I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse
Robert Metcalfe, in 1995. Reported in: New Scientist, Volume 151 (1996)
2. Einstein's failed prediction:
3. Thomas Edison on the application of alternating current:
4. Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind
Harvard Biologist George Wald, in 1970. As reported in: Free Market Environmentalism (Springer, 2001), Chapter 1
5. This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.
William Orton, President of Western Union, in 1876. As reported in: AT&T Consent Decree (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991), p. 166
6. [We shall be able to produce] strawberries as large as apples for our great-great-grandchildren; raspberries and blackberries so big that one will suffice for a single person.
An enthusiast in horticulture, in 1901. As reported in: The Independent, Volume 53 (1901), p. 740
7. Democracy will be dead by 1950.
John Langdon-Davies, in 1936. A short history of the future (Dodd, Mead & Company, 1936), p. 125
8. The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad.
The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Ford's lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Company. In: The Truth about Henry Ford (1922) by Sarah T. Bushnell, p. 57
9. TV will not be able to hold onto any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.
Darryl Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox movie studio, in 1947. As reported in: Minutes of the Meeting (1983), p. 16
10. Steve Balmer's epic comment on the iPhone:
11. In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution [...] By 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half.
Life Magazine, 30 January 1970, p. 22
12. By 2000, the machines will be producing so much that everyone in the U.S. will, in effect, be independently wealthy.
Time Magazine, Feb. 25, 1966, Essay - The futurists : Looking Toward A.D. 2000
13. It's my conclusion that it is possible to make a conscious computer with superhuman levels of intelligence before 2020.
Ian Pearson. As quoted in: The Observer, 22 May 2005
14. Marconi's prediction about wars:
15. I'm hopeful that the first people could be taken to Mars in 10 to 12 years, I think it's certainly possible for that to occur.
Elon Musk, as reported by CNBC in June 2014
16. Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop—because women like to get out of the house, like to handle the merchandise, like to be able to change their minds.
Time Magazine, Feb. 25, 1966, Essay - The futurists : Looking Toward A.D. 2000
17. By 2020 you'll have seen private citizens circumnavigate the moon.
Eric Anderson. As reported in: Space.com, February 3, 2010
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