Predicting the future

Lightbulbs

“[It is] good enough for our transatlantic friends … but unworthy of the attention of practical or scientific men.”
British Parliamentary Committee on Thomas Edison’s lightbulb, 1880.

Wright Flyer

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”
Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1895.

Nuclear power plant

“There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable.”
Albert Einstein, 1932.

ENIAC

“Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1.5 tons.”
Popular Mechanics magazine, 1949.

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