So when did technology begin? The question is a more difficult to answer than you may think. We all assume that even the experts always had a vision in mind to incorporate technology into the everyday lives of ordinary individuals. Take a look at the following quotes from well-known, experienced experts (quoted in NSBA’s, Leadership and Technology, taken from Cerf, C. and Navasky, V. (1984). The Experts Speak: The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation. New York: Panteon Books):
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“Computers in the future may weigh no more than one and a half tons.” * -Popular Mechanics, Forecasting the Relentless March of
Science, 1949
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“I think there is a world market for maybe
five computers.”
* -Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943
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“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
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“But what . . . is it good for?”
* -Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Divisions of
IBM, commenting on the microchip, 1968
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“There is no reason anyone would want a
computer in their home.”
* -Ken Olson, President, Chairman, and Founder of Digital
Equipment Corporation, 1977
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“I watched his face (Samuel F.B. Morse)
closely to see if he was not deranged, and was assured by other Senators as
we left the room that they had no confidence in it either.”
* -Senator Oliver Smith of Indiana, 1842, after witnessing
a first demonstration of the telegraph
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“Well-informed people know it is impossible
to transmit their voices over wires, and even if it were possible, the thing
would not have practical value.”
* -Editorial in the Boston Post, 1865
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“Radio has no future.”
* -Lord Kelvin, Physicist and President of the Royal
Society, 1897
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“The radio craze will die out in time.”
* -Thomas Edison, 1922
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“There’s a lunatic in the lobby who says
he’s invented a device for transmitting pictures over the air. Be careful,
he may have a razor on him.”
* -Editor of the London Daily Express, commenting to a
staffer on someone who had asked to see a reporter and was waiting
downstairs
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