A Few Failed Human Predictions
“The 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.
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”–Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1985.
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”–Charles H. Duell, commissioner, U.S. Office of Patent, 1899.
Science will soon solve all problems and eliminate war.–Ernst Haeckel in his book The Riddle of the Universe, 1899.
“The [atomic] bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives.”–Admiral William Leahy to U.S. President Harry Truman in 1945.
Sources: James Canton, The Extreme Future, 2006, p. 247; Bill Emmott, 20:21 Vision, 2003, p. 340; Michio Kaku, Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century, 1997, p. 5.
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