Monday, January 03, 2011
Predictions gone wrong
The "ten dumbest" tech predictions of all time. Sample:“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.” — Western Union internal memo, 1876.
2 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Jan 06, 09:13:00 AM:
A fun article to read.
All new technology has it's critics and pessimists.
I remember when Xerox first started advertising the copying machine on TV. They sold it as a replacement for carbon paper complete with a little cost/benefit analysis to show how it saved a firm money. They seemed to completely miss the way way it could speed the spread of information, which was the machine's real value.
By 
Knucklehead, at
Fri Jan 07, 10:03:00 AM:
I remember listening to a Bell Labs Distinguished Engineer tell me how VoIP was too flawed to ever work well enough to become more than a niche telephony solution.
