Wacky Future Predictions

Too bad for the people who made the following predictions that the psychic hot line was not available for them to consult. Otherwise they might have backed off a bit on the included predictions. Included here are predictions supposedly made by people in the know that ... were way off base, shall we say. These predictions were made by big business, the media, just to name a few. For example, did you know that in 1981 Bill Gates predicted that 640 K ought to be enough for anybody. Or that Hewlard Packard predicted that Steve Jobs, who went on to found Apple, was a loser and college dropout. They rejected his job application.

World Predictions

Western Union internal memo, 1876 - This is a quote. "This telephone has too many short comings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. "

Marshal Ferdinand Foch in 1911-- Airplanes are interesting toys, but they have no military use.

White Star Line Official 1912 - An official of the White Star Line, speaking of the firm's newly built flagship, the Titanic, launched in 1912, declared that the ship was unsinkable!

Lee de Forest, 1926, Inventor of the Cathode Ray Tube -Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility--a development which we should waste little time dreaming about.

H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927 - Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?

Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, October 16, 1929 - Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.

Popular Mechanics 1949 - Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.

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

Margaret Thatcher, 1974 - It will be years - not in my time - before a woman will become Prime Minister.

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

Hewlett-Packard's rejection of Steve Jobs, who went on to found Apple Computers-- We don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.