you could not be more wrong
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top 10
tech predictions that turned out to be
false for this list we’re looking at
prophecies guesses or projections that
were made in the tech world that turned
out to be painfully painfully false
we’re also taking into account who
supposedly made the prediction because
if it’s someone who should have known
better
it makes the fail that much worse number
10
machine guns will make war impossible
Hiram Maxim whether they’re pitching a
new kitchen utensil or a weapon for the
military inventors will always promote
their newfangled gadgets as the be-all
and end-all take Hiram Maxim for example
after inventing the first automatic
machine gun he was supposedly asked by
British doctor and writer Havelock Ellis
whether he thought his maxim gun would
make war more terrible Maxim replied by
saying machine guns would not only make
war less terrible they would make it
impossible
he has unfortunately been proven false
on multiple occasions and both eyes guns
are helping to keep the skies clear of
enemies all over the world
number nine television won’t last it’s a
flash in the pan Mary Somerville it’s
natural for people to defend their
stream of income and success and that is
what BBC radio broadcaster Mary
Somerville did in 1948 when she called
the up-and-coming medium of television a
flash in the pan claiming it had never
last by the 1950s TV was the dominant
form of telecommunication from the scene
of action cameramen televised events
which you may see in your own home if of
course you have a television receiver it
shaped public attitudes and has since
become one of the biggest types of
in-house entertainment it has added a
new dimension to the entertainment arts
and has intensified television as a
social and educational force with an
average of 44 million sold in North
America each year as opposed to radio
sales which were significantly less one
day through television the entire world
will stream into our living
rooms with a velocity of light number
eight the iPhone won’t get any
significant market share Steve Ballmer
who knows what motivated business mogul
Alan Sugar to famously say the iPod
would be dead finished gone kaput by
Christmas 2005 needless to say he was
wrong
so you’d think others would learn from
his mistake and not make such
predictions when a piece of hardware
like the iPhone went on sale in mid 2007
these are not three separate devices
this is one device
and we are calling it iPhone however
former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said
there’s no chance that the iPhone is
going to get any significant market
share no chance 51 million units sold in
q4 of 2013 sounds pretty significant to
us it’s just the internet on your phone
number seven there will never be a
bigger plane built a Boeing engineer a
hunk of metal that soars through the air
and across coastlines surely only a
small aircraft can pull that off at
least that was the conclusion a Boeing
engineer came to after the first flight
of the Boeing model 247 in 1933 touted
as the first truly modern airliner the
247 held just 10 people since then
aviation has evolved massively thanks to
the contributions of people like Howard
Hughes born was the Boeing model 307
Stratoliner and it was that ability to
pressurize the cabin that created a
level of comfort that hadn’t yet been
experienced on passenger airplanes
currently the biggest passenger airliner
is the Airbus a380 which can house over
850 people number six y2k will bring the
end of the world
various there are plenty of people who
think computers will cause the fall of
humanity but at the very least the idea
of the millennium bug was put to rest
the minute the clock struck twelve On
January 1st 2000 as early as the mid 80s
theorists and experts were suggesting
that the year 2000 was judgement day at
least where machines were concerned
that’s when computers would go haywire
because their systems couldn’t handle a
switch from 99 to double zero a much
hyped countdown to d-day followed until
the ball dropped and nothing happened
number 5 a rocket will never leave the
Earth’s atmosphere the New York Times
the idea of exploring the mysterious
abyss that lay beyond planet Earth was
still considered by many to be
impossible even in the early 20th
century the New York Times
then a reputable source of news was one
publication that said point blank in
1936 that a rocket will never leave the
Earth’s atmosphere that was proven false
just over two decades later when the
Russians launched Sputnik until two days
ago that sound had never been heard on
this earth suddenly it has become as
much a part of 20th century life as the
wear of your vacuum cleaner and then of
course the Americans put a man on the
moon in 1969 blasting that theory to
bits one of their plan on diet plate
number four x-rays will prove to be a
hoax William Thompson the Lord Kelvin
many things in the tech world turn out
to be hoaxes but x-rays like the ability
to conduct heart and brain surgery
weren’t one of them at their inception
x-rays were said to be quite dangerous
but when used correctly quite
unbelievable when it came to medical
advancements but mathematical physicist
and engineer William Thompson wasn’t
convinced and flat-out announced his
belief that they were a hoax however
shortly after x-ray inventor Vilhelm
Rincon was able to convince the Lord
Kelvin of their veracity and the rest is
history I can cast an x-ray shadow of my
hand which on the developed film looks
like this number three the automobile is
only a novelty a fad the president of
the Michigan Savings Bank okay pilot
Eddie Rickenbacker’s prediction of
flying cars by 1944 was way off the mark
but arguably a more realistic automotive
prediction was made in 1883 by Ford
stockholder Horace Rackham when he
refused to believe the president of the
Michigan Savings Bank when he said the
horse is here to stay but the automobile
is only a novelty a fad Rackham bought
50 shares in the fledgling company and
ultimately became a millionaire when the
Ford Motor Company became wildly
successful talk about unsound financial
advice number two 640 kilobytes ought to
be enough PC memory for anybody
bill gates tech guru Bill Gates has
never been shy to voice his opinion but
this quote takes the cake no one will
need more than 637 kilobytes of memory
for a personal computer 640 kilobytes
ought to be enough for anybody he
allegedly said which considering things
have expanded from kilobytes to
megabytes gigabytes and terabytes is a
huge gap thing is Gates has repeatedly
denied making the statement of course
Digital Equipment Corporation co-founder
Ken Olson said in 1977 that there is no
reason for any individual to have a
computer in his home so it could have
been worse internally we said running
Microsoft software but outside we always
had a computer on every desk in every
home before we reveal our number one
prediction fail in the technology world
here are a few honorable mentions
number one everything that can be
invented has been invented
Charles H dual imagine a world without
TV cell phones computers and more that’s
the world Charles H Jewell supposedly
predicted in 1899 when he said
everything that can be invented has been
invented at the time he was the
Commissioner of the US Patent Office so
he’d know however like the Bill Gates
quote this one has been declared a myth
at least when it comes to who said it
regardless of who spoke this infamous
quote we hope it makes future skeptics
think twice before making such a bold
statement do you agree with our list
which technological forecasts do you
think we’re way off the mark for more
head-scratching top 10s published every
day be sure to subscribe to
watchmojo.com
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top 10
tech predictions that turned out to be
false for this list we’re looking at
prophecies guesses or projections that
were made in the tech world that turned
out to be painfully painfully false
we’re also taking into account who
supposedly made the prediction because
if it’s someone who should have known
better
it makes the fail that much worse number
10
machine guns will make war impossible
Hiram Maxim whether they’re pitching a
new kitchen utensil or a weapon for the
military inventors will always promote
their newfangled gadgets as the be-all
and end-all take Hiram Maxim for example
after inventing the first automatic
machine gun he was supposedly asked by
British doctor and writer Havelock Ellis
whether he thought his maxim gun would
make war more terrible Maxim replied by
saying machine guns would not only make
war less terrible they would make it
impossible
he has unfortunately been proven false
on multiple occasions and both eyes guns
are helping to keep the skies clear of
enemies all over the world
number nine television won’t last it’s a
flash in the pan Mary Somerville it’s
natural for people to defend their
stream of income and success and that is
what BBC radio broadcaster Mary
Somerville did in 1948 when she called
the up-and-coming medium of television a
flash in the pan claiming it had never
last by the 1950s TV was the dominant
form of telecommunication from the scene
of action cameramen televised events
which you may see in your own home if of
course you have a television receiver it
shaped public attitudes and has since
become one of the biggest types of
in-house entertainment it has added a
new dimension to the entertainment arts
and has intensified television as a
social and educational force with an
average of 44 million sold in North
America each year as opposed to radio
sales which were significantly less one
day through television the entire world
will stream into our living
rooms with a velocity of light number
eight the iPhone won’t get any
significant market share Steve Ballmer
who knows what motivated business mogul
Alan Sugar to famously say the iPod
would be dead finished gone kaput by
Christmas 2005 needless to say he was
wrong
so you’d think others would learn from
his mistake and not make such
predictions when a piece of hardware
like the iPhone went on sale in mid 2007
these are not three separate devices
this is one device
and we are calling it iPhone however
former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said
there’s no chance that the iPhone is
going to get any significant market
share no chance 51 million units sold in
q4 of 2013 sounds pretty significant to
us it’s just the internet on your phone
number seven there will never be a
bigger plane built a Boeing engineer a
hunk of metal that soars through the air
and across coastlines surely only a
small aircraft can pull that off at
least that was the conclusion a Boeing
engineer came to after the first flight
of the Boeing model 247 in 1933 touted
as the first truly modern airliner the
247 held just 10 people since then
aviation has evolved massively thanks to
the contributions of people like Howard
Hughes born was the Boeing model 307
Stratoliner and it was that ability to
pressurize the cabin that created a
level of comfort that hadn’t yet been
experienced on passenger airplanes
currently the biggest passenger airliner
is the Airbus a380 which can house over
850 people number six y2k will bring the
end of the world
various there are plenty of people who
think computers will cause the fall of
humanity but at the very least the idea
of the millennium bug was put to rest
the minute the clock struck twelve On
January 1st 2000 as early as the mid 80s
theorists and experts were suggesting
that the year 2000 was judgement day at
least where machines were concerned
that’s when computers would go haywire
because their systems couldn’t handle a
switch from 99 to double zero a much
hyped countdown to d-day followed until
the ball dropped and nothing happened
number 5 a rocket will never leave the
Earth’s atmosphere the New York Times
the idea of exploring the mysterious
abyss that lay beyond planet Earth was
still considered by many to be
impossible even in the early 20th
century the New York Times
then a reputable source of news was one
publication that said point blank in
1936 that a rocket will never leave the
Earth’s atmosphere that was proven false
just over two decades later when the
Russians launched Sputnik until two days
ago that sound had never been heard on
this earth suddenly it has become as
much a part of 20th century life as the
wear of your vacuum cleaner and then of
course the Americans put a man on the
moon in 1969 blasting that theory to
bits one of their plan on diet plate
number four x-rays will prove to be a
hoax William Thompson the Lord Kelvin
many things in the tech world turn out
to be hoaxes but x-rays like the ability
to conduct heart and brain surgery
weren’t one of them at their inception
x-rays were said to be quite dangerous
but when used correctly quite
unbelievable when it came to medical
advancements but mathematical physicist
and engineer William Thompson wasn’t
convinced and flat-out announced his
belief that they were a hoax however
shortly after x-ray inventor Vilhelm
Rincon was able to convince the Lord
Kelvin of their veracity and the rest is
history I can cast an x-ray shadow of my
hand which on the developed film looks
like this number three the automobile is
only a novelty a fad the president of
the Michigan Savings Bank okay pilot
Eddie Rickenbacker’s prediction of
flying cars by 1944 was way off the mark
but arguably a more realistic automotive
prediction was made in 1883 by Ford
stockholder Horace Rackham when he
refused to believe the president of the
Michigan Savings Bank when he said the
horse is here to stay but the automobile
is only a novelty a fad Rackham bought
50 shares in the fledgling company and
ultimately became a millionaire when the
Ford Motor Company became wildly
successful talk about unsound financial
advice number two 640 kilobytes ought to
be enough PC memory for anybody
bill gates tech guru Bill Gates has
never been shy to voice his opinion but
this quote takes the cake no one will
need more than 637 kilobytes of memory
for a personal computer 640 kilobytes
ought to be enough for anybody he
allegedly said which considering things
have expanded from kilobytes to
megabytes gigabytes and terabytes is a
huge gap thing is Gates has repeatedly
denied making the statement of course
Digital Equipment Corporation co-founder
Ken Olson said in 1977 that there is no
reason for any individual to have a
computer in his home so it could have
been worse internally we said running
Microsoft software but outside we always
had a computer on every desk in every
home before we reveal our number one
prediction fail in the technology world
here are a few honorable mentions
number one everything that can be
invented has been invented
Charles H dual imagine a world without
TV cell phones computers and more that’s
the world Charles H Jewell supposedly
predicted in 1899 when he said
everything that can be invented has been
invented at the time he was the
Commissioner of the US Patent Office so
he’d know however like the Bill Gates
quote this one has been declared a myth
at least when it comes to who said it
regardless of who spoke this infamous
quote we hope it makes future skeptics
think twice before making such a bold
statement do you agree with our list
which technological forecasts do you
think we’re way off the mark for more
head-scratching top 10s published every
day be sure to subscribe to
watchmojo.com
Please follow and like us: