More Experts

Yesterday, I posted a number of quotes from so-called experts. Here’s a few more....

"640K of memory ought to be enough for anybody."
Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, 1981

"The cloning of mammals is biologically impossible."
James McGrath and Davor Solter, writing in Science, December 14, 1984

"No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris."
Orville Wright, 1908

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

"I have traveled 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.

"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.