The Revenoor, a most discerning and astute gentleman from out west,
sent this compendium of predictions...

.......................Famous Predictions.......................

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

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

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

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

"I have travelled 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

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

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

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

"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

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better
than a 'C,' the ideamust 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.)

"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"

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

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

"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

"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

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

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

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
-- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899

"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

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

"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

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
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