They Were Wrong

[Tenet Nosce]

“We will never make a 32 bit operating system.” — Bill Gates

“To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive, and then return to earth - all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances.” — Lee DeForest, American radio pioneer and inventor of the vacuum tube, in 1926

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” — Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society, 1895.

“The energy produced by the breaking down of the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine.” — Ernest Rutherford, shortly after splitting the atom for the first time.

“There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” — Albert Einstein, 1932

“X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” — Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1883.

“Fooling around with alternating current is just a waste of time. Nobody will use it, ever.” — Thomas Edison

"Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.” — Dr Dionysys Larder (1793-1859)

‘I can accept the theory of relativity as little as I can accept the existence of atoms and other such dogma.’ — Professor Ernst Mach

"The brain is an organ of minor importance, perhaps necessary to cool the blood." - Aristotle

"No balloon and no aeroplane will ever be practically successful." - Lord Kelvin, President of Royal Society, 1896

‘The foolish idea of shooting at the moon is an example of the absurd length to which vicious specialization will carry scientists working in thought-tight compartments.’ — A. W. Bickerton (physics professor), 1926

‘While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility.’ — Lee Deforest

‘Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.’ — Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale, 1929

‘Inventions reached their limit long ago and I see no hope for further development.’ — Julius Sextus Frontinus, prominent Roman engineer (c. 40-103 AD)

‘Radio has no future.’ — Lord Kelvin, President of Royal Society, 1898

‘There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom. The glib supposition of utilizing atomic energy when our coal has run out is a completely unscientific Utopian dream, a childish bug-a-boo. Nature has introduced a few fool-proof devices into the great majority of elements that constitute the bulk of the world, and they have no energy to give up in the process of disintegration.’— Robert Millikan, Nobel prize winner in physics, 1920

‘Space travel is utter bilge.’— Dr. Richard van der Riet Woolley, Astronomer Royal, 1956

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I'm fairly sure I lived a past life as a contemporary of Lord Kelvin. Probably the most blatantly wrong physicist of all time. He did make all manner of truly valuable contributions to science. Unfortunately his grand manner of issuing definitively false prognostications for the future of science, and open ridicule of alternative theories of his day, has also been passed down to scientific posterity.

[kainous]

This is great, but most of these statements have contexts with which they should be shared. To say "Fooling around with alternating current is a waste of time" was Edison saying "Stop using my competitor's (Tesla's) product."

"Stocks have reached a seemingly permanent plateau" Was spoken of with the word permanent, he really meant "permanent, in the context of the years in which he was referring"

Many of the other's comments were truly just wrong, I agree, but aren't we all certain to come to concepts that we are certain that we understand, just to learn that there's so much left that we don't yet understand.

There was a child on the radio today who said to his grandmother on his first airplane flight, "When will we start to get smaller?" He was sure that because planes get smaller when they take off, that his would too. This is naivety that we all experience now, even those who are studying science. More information and new ways of thinking will always refute what you and I and even those who study physical sciences for a living. It's the beauty of living in 3rd density.

[zenmaster]

This is great, but most of these statements have contexts with which they should be shared.

You can't both appreciate context and also savor the irony.

[kainous]

This is great, but most of these statements have contexts with which they should be shared.

You can't both appreciate context and also savor the irony.

I suppose I could, but I'm on one of those new diet fads that takes irony off the list. I can just smell it at this point.

[zenmaster]

Paleo? Which reverts to caveman appreciation of a situation?