OT Contest: predictions that go way wrong

[bags27]

As we predict the absolute brilliance of UConn players who have never played either a moment of college ball or a moment of college ball for UConn, and as we predict how many thousands of consecutive games will be UConn's next winning streak (add humorous emoji here), I just came upon this list of woeful predictions. In the summer d0ldrums, I'm sure others can produce more. (No fair going back to earlier BY posts to produce examples--especially many of mine: that's way too easy!)

 

[Wally East]

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

 

[tomcat]

"I can't believe anyone would pay all that money to put a computer in their home. And for what?"
-- Me (circa 1980)

 

[Aluminny69]

Worst weather forecast ever......

 

[Aluminny69]

 

[DaddyChoc]

 

[DaddyChoc]

 

[meyers7]

Kenneth E. F. Watt (Ecology Professor University of California 1970) - "If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but 11 degrees colder by the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us in an ice age."

Peter Gunter ( Professor, North Texas State University, 1970) - "Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will being in India, these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, south and Central America will exist under famine conditions....By the year 2000, 30 years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America and Australia, will be in famine."

Popular Mechanics 1949 - "Where a computer like ENIAC today is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may only have 1000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh only 1.5 tons."

 

[CocoHusky]

Not a prediction just funny as hell.

"I was misquoted."
Charles Barkley speaking about his autobiographical book Title: Outrageous

Charles then went on to co-write another book Title: I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It.

 

[meyers7]

Not a prediction just funny as hell.

"I was misquoted."
Charles Barkley speaking about his autobiographical book Title: Outrageous

Charles then went on to co-write another book Title: I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It.

 

[BroadwayVa]

You are Bad ---just Bad!!

 

[wire chief]

DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN!

 

[Bestiarius]

General John Sedgwick said to his men at the battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864: "Why are you men dodging like this? They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist......"

 

[RockyMTblue2]

The Zem Master will brink the Knicks a title in his 3rd year. Dolan of course.

 

[Aluminny69]

General John Sedgwick said to his men at the battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864: "Why are you men dodging like this? They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist."

George Armstrong Custer (at the Little Big Horn): "Take no prisoners!"

 

[Aluminny69]

15 Worst Tech Predictions Of All Time

1876: "The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys." — William Preece, British Post Office.

1876: "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication." — William Orton, President of Western Union.

1889: “Fooling around with alternating current (AC) is just a waste of time. Nobody will use it, ever.” — Thomas Edison

1903: “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad.” — President of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Company.

1921: “The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?”

1946: "Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night." — Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox.

1955: "Nuclear powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within 10 years." — Alex Lewyt, President of the Lewyt Vacuum Cleaner Company.

1959: "Before man reaches the moon, your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail." — Arthur Summerfield, U.S. Postmaster General.

1961: "There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television or radio service inside the United States." — T.A.M. Craven, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner.

1966: "Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop.” — Time Magazine.

1981: “Cellular phones will absolutely not replace local wire systems.” — Marty Cooper, inventor.

1995: "I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse." — Robert Metcalfe, founder of 3Com.

2005: "There's just not that many videos I want to watch." — Steve Chen, CTO and co-founder of YouTube expressing concerns about his company’s long term viability.

2006: "Everyone's always asking me when Apple will come out with a cell phone. My answer is, 'Probably never.'" — David Pogue, The New York Times.

2007: “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.” — Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO.