The Daily Bureaucrat listed statements where various individuals and organizations had, in his opinion, doubted the success of new inventions. He mentioned that the Michigan Savings Bank estimated in 1903 that the horse would persist and the car would be merely a fashion phenomenon for the wealthy. According to Thomas Watson, in 1943 there might have been a market for computers globally for perhaps five devices, and he said that Ken Olson stated in 1977 that nobody would need a computer in their home. He said that Steve Ballmer expressed doubt in 2007 that the iPhone would gain significant market share. Paul Krugman noted that the economic impact of the internet in 1998 would have hardly been greater than that of fax machines. He reported that Bill Gates predicted in 2004 that email spam would be resolved within two years, and that Marty Cooper assessed in 1981 that mobile phones would not completely replace landlines. The list also included Lord Kelvin’s claim in 1895 about the impossibility of heavier-than-air airplanes, Darryl F. Zanuck’s 1946 assessment of the short-lived nature of television, and Erasmus Wilson's prediction in 1878 about electric lights going out after the Paris World’s Fair. William Preece, according to The Daily Bureaucrat, said in 1876 that the telephone was not needed because there were enough messengers. He recounted that Lee De Forest deemed moon travel impossible in 1957 and that Dionysius Lardner predicted in 1830 that fast travel would lead to passengers choking. He said Thomas Edison rejected the use of alternating current in 1889. Finally, The Daily Bureaucrat asked what was now being said about the new Tesla Roadster. #teknologia #innovaatiot #historia (translated)
