"Everything that can be invented has been invented."

Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

When I think of incorrect predictions, the one above is always the first that comes to my mind. It simply amazes me that people can make statements without the foresight to at least consider the possibility of man’s ingenuity. To this day, people still make predictions that I believe may very well come to pass.

“Yes,” I believe that man will one day discover intelligent life on other planets (okay, now that I have lost all credibility with fellow bloggers!). “Yes, I believe that teleportation will one day be a reality (Oh no! Now people are really going to dismiss me as a crackpot!”) The point that I am trying to make here is that we never know what man will one day turn into a reality so why be dismissive but instead allow our minds to go free to explore and consider all possibilities.

Throughout history, people have been making predictions. When Christopher Columbus decided to set sail in search of new lands, the Spanish Royal Commission, rejecting Christopher Columbus' proposal to sail west said that “So many centuries after the Creation, it is unlikely that anyone could find hitherto unknown lands of any value." On a more recent note, former U.S. President Cleveland, predicted that “There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom.”

Below is a number of other predictions that, since made, have proven to be incorrect.

"You're planning to make a ship sail against wind and tide by lighting a fire below deck?? I don't have time to listen to that kind of nonsense!"
Napoleon, about Robert Fultons plans to make a Steamboat.

"I believe in the horse. The automobile is merely a passing phenomonon."
Emperor Wilhelm II

"Airplanes suffers from so many technical faults that it is only a matter of time before any reasonable man realizes that they are useless!"
Scientific American (1910)

"That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced." – Scientific American, January 2, 1909.


"Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1.5 tons." – Popular Mechanics, March 1949.

"We can close the books on infectious diseases." – Surgeon General of the United States William H. Stewart, 1969; speaking to the U.S. Congress

"Democracy will be dead by 1950." – John Langdon-Davies, A Short History of The Future, 1936.

"Rail travel at high speed is not possible, because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia." – Dr Dionysius Lardner (1793-1859), professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, University College London.

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." – A memo at Western Union, 1878 (or 1876).

So there you have it! Just a few of the predictions that have been proven incorrect over time. Now if inventors were to listen to these naysayers, where would our society be today? If the people responsible for the advent of the Internet shared the attitudes of Western Union, Popular Mechanics, Scientific American as well as other organizations and individuals, you would not be reading this post right now… So, the next time somebody says that it can’t be done, remind them of all the predictions that have been proven incorrect.

Okay, now that that has been said, I am going to prepare for the end of the world which I hear is supposed to be happening in about one week! That's what I hear the word on the street is!

Live long and prosper!