Technology misunderstandings

[toybuilder]

Hi gang,

I'm trying to collect examples of famous technology misunderstandings such as:

Metal airplane's can't fly.
You can't send information without wires.
Rockets can't fly into space - there's no air to push against.

Etc. etc. etc.

The best examples are the kinds of misunderstandings caused by new technology running contrary to contemporary "common sense".

Thanks!

http://www.pasadenasegway.com

The Segway is to a Moped like a Helicopter is to an Airplane.

[stevew]

When IBM developed the electronic computer using tubes instead of relays I think management forecast a worldwide demand of perhaps 5 or 6 machines. I think I have that one right.

[JohnM]

"Cars will eliminate a greater part of the nervousness, distraction, and strain of modern metropolitan life."
-- prediction, Scientific American magazine, 1899

[mzokc]

Media was not in favor of Disneyland after opening day:

Quote: It was called "A Hollywood Spectacular - A Spectacular Failure" and "Disney's Folly."

The whole story at: http://www.mouseplanet.com/jason/011.htm

Mark

[larryKay]

Not technology related. I am in the wine & liquor trade. when I first saw the Absolut bottle, I said, it won't fly, the bottle isn't too visible on the shelves.....

Larry

[Deviant]

A few ideas to research:

I imagine "Fire comes from the heavens, you can't make it."
The earth is flat.
The heavens revolve around the earth.
When a projectile loses energy it falls directly down.
Heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones.
Drain the poison out by draining the blood. (some good, but)
Release the evil spirits by drilling holes in the skull. (again, sometimes effective!)
A ship made of metal (material heavier than water) will sink.
Nobody needs to driver faster than xx (25mph?).
Nobody needs a computer faster than xx.
DC is safer than AC. (its the amount that hurts)
We can never have a building taller than xx, because it would collapse.
Hey, we can make water pipes using lead because its malleable!
Bees are spontaneously generated from rotting beasts.
The lifeforce of "fire" is embedded in trees. (OK - maybe it is)
You can't cook food in just a box. (solar cookers DO work)
You can't escape the gravity of the earth.
Superconductors can't exist above xx temperature (zero Kelvin?)

Surely there are tons more. I imagine this thread is relevant due to the obvious difficulty grasping why the Segway HT doesn't just fall over.

Good Luck.

[jillmac]

Computers will breed a paperless society! Hmmmmm.

Nothing is inexplicable, merely unexplained..... Dr. Who

[clm]

Here is a current one!

Myth: The Segway HT works by using its gyros to figure out how far and how fast to rotate the tires to stay underneath the rider ...

Chris

[JT]

Didn't Bill Gates say one like "No one will ever need more than 5 megs of hard drive space" back in the day...

[Sunday]

Modern appliances will simplify our hectic lives.


Sunday

[citivolus]

A few of my favorites

"The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives." Adm. William Leahy referring to the atomic bomb

"Space travel is utter bilge." Dr. Wooley, advisor to the British government in 1956

"Radio has no future." - Lord Kelvin in 1897

"What use could this company make of an electrical toy?" President of Western Union in reference to the telephone

"While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility" Lee DeForest in 1926

"Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia." - Dr. Dionysus Lardner

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

and this sounds familiar, (which is too long to post in its entirety) the report from the Congressional Horseless Carriage Committee in 1875 I couldn't sum it up better.

"Horseless carriages propelled by gasoline engines might attain speeds of 14 or even 20 miles per hour. The menace to our people of vehicles of this type hurtling through our streets and along our roads and poisoning our atmosphere would call for prompt legislative action even if the military and economic implications were not so overwhelming."


--
swiftly flying

[Stan671]

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 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.

"But what ... is it good for?" --Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"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 seriously 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).

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" --H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

"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 Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

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

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." --Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this." --Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said,'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" --Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." --1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.

"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training." --Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." --Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"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.

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon". --Sir John Eric Ericksen


Stan Dobrowski