[Jokes] Bizarre Predictions

[Chris McKenna]

* "Computers in the future may weigh no more  than 15 tons."
--Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless  march of
Science, 1949

* "I think there is a  world market for maybe five computers."
--Thomas Watson,  chairman of IBM, 1943

* "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

* "There is no reason anyone  would want a computer in their
home."
--Ken  Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital
Equipment  Corp., 1977

* "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to  be serious-
ly 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.

* "The concept is interesting and  well-formed, but in order
to earn better than a 'C,' the idea  must be feasible,"
--A Yale University management professor in  response to Fred
Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight  delivery service.
(Smith went on to found Federal Express  Corp.)

* "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling  on his
face and not Gary Cooper,"
--Gary Cooper  on his decision not to take the leading role
in "Gone With The  Wind."

* "A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market  research
reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and  chewy
cookies like you make."
--Response to  Debbie Fields' idea of starting her company,
Mrs. Fields'  Cookies.

* "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is  on the way
out."
--Decca Recording Co. rejecting  the Beatles, 1962.

* "Stocks have reached what looks like a  permanently high
plateau."
--Irving Fisher,  Professor of Economics, Yale University,
1929.

* "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
--Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole
Superieure de Guerre.

* "Everything that can be invented  has been invented."
--Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S.  Office of Patents,
1899.

* "Louis Pasteur's  theory of germs is ridiculous fiction".
--Pierre Pachet,  Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

***