In a previous list (top 30 failed technology predictions) we gave a series of quotes which all turned out to be patently false. Science changes every year (not just in the realm of technology) and so it is a great source for very embarrassing quotes which later turn out to be very short sighted. In this list, we look at 15 quotes from scientists around the world who would now rather they hadn’t spoken.
1. While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming. – Lee DeForest, American radio pioneer, 1926.
2. Radio has no future. – Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist.
3. Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires, and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value. – Editorial in the Boston Post, 1865
4. ‘The abdomen, the chest and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.’ – Sir John Eric Ericson, Surgeon to Queen Victoria, 1873
5. “That virus is a pussycat.” — Dr. Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology professor at U.C. Berkeley, on HIV, 1988
6. Your cigarettes will never become popular. – F. G. Alton, 1870, cigar maker, turning down Mr. John Player
7. I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of anyone. – Darwin (writing in Origin of Species), 1859
8. X-rays are a hoax. – Lord Kelvin (again!), ca. 1900
9. The so-called theories of Einstein are merely the ravings of a mind polluted with liberal, democratic nonsense which is utterly unacceptable to German men of science. – Dr. Walter Gross, 1940
10. “With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market.” — Business Week, August 2, 1968.
11. “Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.” — Workers whom Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.
12. “Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.” — Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872.
13. “Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” — Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
14. “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” — Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899
15. “Within the next few decades, autos will have folding wings that can be spread when on a straight stretch of road so that the machine can take to the air.” — Eddie Rickenbacker, ‘Popular Science,’ July 1924
righteous list
This list just proves how stupid scientists really are
Obviously not, Meia, if other scientists actually invented these things. Most scientists aren't cynics and are very open to potentially "impossible" ideas. All of these guys were far too negative about their crafts (except for Darwin's quote, which could be seen as too positive, haha).
Number 5 and 12 are on twice!
Good list. It’s funny that that they say these things, but it’s not like they no better. I’d like to read a newer version of this in 150 years.
The Louis Pasteur Germs quote is listed two separate times.
You have the Pierre Pachet one about Louis Pasteur listed twice ya know.
Your comment have been said twice already
you repeated pierre pachet’s quote.
I agree completely with #7.
Weren't a couple of these on the previous list? Also these aren't really 'science predictions' . Enjoyable nevertheless,I always find lists like this interesting, it seems that most people at any point in time think that their society is the best and will not progress or change any further.
Folks, let's not forget that hindsight is a wonderful thing. Who knows – maybe Listverse in 2173 will be making fun of Stephen Hawking or Andre Geim for their "wacky" theories and prophecies.
listverse will be around in 2173?
Of course it will be. All you have to do is indoctrinate all of your children and grandchildren with this new holy writ and it will last forever. And Listverse will never start any wars like the previous religions have done because all believers are/will be rational people and all non-believers are/will be too simple to realize that there is such a possiblity.
Yep & moderated by JFrater IV. I have faith.
nah , it'll be Frater in a head jar like on Futurama
Love that idea.
There'll still be Br0ck's descendents as well.
I'm hoping he's not able to reproduce. There's the whole bit about finding someone willing to bear his child. Scary thought.
OMG! Brock is still around?
I sort of figured he might have tripped over his own feet in the shallow end of gene pool and drowned by now.
I would love to see the 2173 decendents of the LV posters!
Imagine br0ck's great great great (etc..) grandchildren posting. I wonder what pearls of wisdom they would bestow upon us.
This list is too Venusian?
The terms "science" and "prediction" are used rather loosely in this list.
I think Darwin's comment was very reasonable. The rest of the quotes on the list are of ignorance and naivety but his was a valid point and the embarrassment should be on those who challenge his findings. Very good list all the same
Darwin's comment was less a prediction and more an attempt to stave off controversy. It took Darwin nearly twenty years to actually publish his work on evolution. There are a number of reasons for this but one was certainly that he understood the implications of his theory and recognized that it would not be well-received in certain quarters.
sorry to be a jerk dear sir but it is spelled 'naivete'
You'll find the noun form can be written naivety, naïvety, naïveté, naïvete, or naiveté
Actually, Darwin's theory is proven to be false. Many evolutionists acknowledge this, but refuse to believe it. At the time, nobody had the means to disprove it, but now, we do.
Um, what? Natural selection has definitely not been proven false; in fact, the evidence supporting it is increasing by the day, especially with the development of molecular genetics.
That said, Darwin was wrong about many of the finer points in his theory, mainly because genes weren't known of back then, so it was difficult for him to find a mechanism for inheritance. But his main idea, natural selection, is very well-supported indeed.
Next time, do some research before spouting out ignorant remarks like that. Sheesh.
Proven false? You mean you never actually took any science classes in school? Something isn’t false just because you lack the brains to understand it.
That was meant for the previous poster. Sorry
i remember thinking in high school what duel thought in 14 well over a hundred years back. guess the human thought processes and scepticism about achievements and potential will be the same over years and generations.
http://www.terrafugia.com/ #15
i think number 2 is right. i mean who still listens to the radio?
Probably some guys in the military, because I don't think that ground teams use cellphones to communicate (or are they?)
And a lot of people that I know listen to radio when they're driving alone.
The problem with Lord Kelvin sentences comes each time a scientist speaks out of his knowledge domain (by example, I'm a med student, if I'm saying something about quantum gravity, it's most likely to be bull****;) )
radio???
who needs a radio?
are you ready harry?
Mock…Yeah
ing…yeah
Bird
yeah
yeah YEAH!
classic.
Come on. That's not a real song….
Love that song!!
pretty sure my cell phone uses radio waves
quite useful technology if you ask me
people in cars and at work and those who like some radio show?
Cool list, but you got a repeat.
so this proves that anything is possible at the next century we will be living on mars and moon
"In this list we look at 20 quotes from scientists " where are quotes 16-20? and louis pasteur is in there twice. Great list btw!
A repeat?.. Ok… But hilarious list!
Loved the one about drilling for oil!
no.5 is repeated at number 13
in some way, shape, or form everything that can be invented has actually been invented.
There's a lot of great things that can still be invented.
A cure to HIV (which they are reportedly close to finding), cancer, and other awful diseases, ice cream that doesn't melt, a system for 3-D that doesn't give you a headache when you watch it, and so, so much more.
Judging by your username, you don't seem like a smart, tasteful person anyway.
lol it's sarcastic, and yes you're rigt we do need to invent cures for these things. in some cases prevention is a cure, such as abstinance to HIV, if you don't get it, you don't need the cure. for those who have it, though, science is working on a cure…and admitedly thats where i goofed up in my comment.
yea i heard that someone has already been cured with some medicine. cant remember what, google, youll find it
Most of the comments were valid for their time,they are only embarrassing in hindsight.Lord kelvin is also purported to have said that there is nothing left to discover about physics.
He was right – Aristotle covered physics perfectly – nihil sub sole novum
Now we know: do not be him.
Great list, just goes to show some things shouldn't be underestimated
or as W said, misunderestimated
The number of things which should not be underestimated should not be underestimated.
i feel ripped off when i read these lists they too short . Also i cant blame these guys, up until their point in history human development was slow and steady but in the last century our development exploded , it must've been pretty hard to see the nuclear and technological age coming .
hey the new no.5 is really good nice SAVE!
The fact that we went from horse and buggy, to automobile, to flight, to nuclear, to space, to the technological age all in a 100 year span is really kinda scary when you think about it. Who knows what we'll be doing in 10, 50, 100 years from now
A 100 years from now’ at the rate that we are going’ we will be a layer of dust amid the earhs crust.
Well at least those people aren't telling us they found a bacteria which could survive in space. I mean, for that time seeing a car or hearing about rays which could show your bones, it is not weird that such things are said. then again it is not wise to shout things that you didn't really researched.
btw: #6 isn't really a scientific quote. but a nice one anyway. Great list though, i like this fact lists
A recent English lesson had a reading about failed technology predictions. Some of these quotes were on it. In the middle was one from the mid-70s which read something like "By the year 2000, telephone lines and radio waves will connect computers, so people can work, do their banking, study and be entertained by their computers, without leaving home". It took my students a little while to catch on. I didn't check at the time, and I can't remember the name of the man who said that, now.
It's easy to make a correct prediction about the future – just make *lots* of predictions about the future and make sure people remember the right ones.
And also be fair to people like Lord Kelvin – he got an awful lot else right.
Yikes!! If #4 were still true then this would most certainly be my ghost posting this comment right now.
I had an intestinal bypass performed back in '06. Long story short, a section of my small intestine collapsed which lead to sepsis and other complications (two blood transfusions, NPO for a month, TPN feeding bag etc…).
Thankfully, I had an awesome team of gastro-surgeons. They were able to fashion a bypass made of tissue from the other sections of my healthy intestines. It's amazing how far along medicine has come these days!
Great list!
If I couldn't eat for a month I'd be gutted!
If I was gutted I couldn't eat for a month
The list is of quotes that are taken mostlyin 1800's and the naivety that was prevalent then. And most of the quotes are by people who are not working in the particular field.
It's like me commenting that Arnold Schwarzenegger would become next US president when I dont know the current vice president's name. ( I am not from US and I know Arnold Schwarzenegger only from movies.)
His name is Joe Biden.
I recommend catching up on some Stephen Colbert. He's my main source for political news.
Two things:
One, the fact that you get your news from Stephen Colbert is kind of sad,
Two, Jon Stewart is infinitely better.
“The trouble with science is that it can be perverted.”—–Patrick McGoohan (1928-2009).
14. “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” — Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899
There should be a list made for the top ten things Invented between 1900 and 2011 including dates as things that are relitively new eg DVDs CDs etc would shock some, who are slightly nieve to the fact these things werent invented or put in to production untill recently.
Get cracking!
not sure if its top 10 but:
Car?
plane
TV
modern rocketry
computer
home video format of your choice
space flight
internet
multiple types of energy sources
plastic?
electric refrigeration
widespread indoor plumbing
there really is to many to list all the big achievements when you stop and think about what man has achieved in the last 100 years or so its kinda scary the level of advancement
Bonus:
"And, with due respect for the cleanliness of the Viennese students, it seems improbable that enough infective matter or vapor could be secluded around the fingernails to kill a patient."
Carl Evard Marius Levy, Head of the Copenhagen Maternity Hospital, 1861.
That's a doozy. Maternal death rates during this time were near on 40%. Almost all due to sepsis and other infections.
Was that in reply to Semmelweiss’ charges that unclean doctors were killing women giving birth?
So even this list's prediction was wrong. 15 instead of 20 and one is repeated. Nice mind game there JF.
i think 5 was incredibly short-sighted, while 12 wasn't too wrong…
Well it was said in the comments that there is a repeat…but the quote was still funny the second time around. Several others were as well. The car with wings had me giggling.
"If you know you are right, you are doing it wrong.
If you don't fail, you are really doing it wrong.
If you don't admit mistakes, your not doing science."
Several versions of that kind of quote has been going around. It's true. Ever learning.
7. I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of anyone. – Darwin (writing in Origin of Species), 1859
This is actually true. There are no good reasons.
Neat list today.
number 15 yup i bet it will let's wait 20 more years.
No. 14 has been proven false if I remember correctly. Duell never said that.
Nice list, How about a list of predictions that were correct or close to it?
Imagine what the world would be like if it wasn't for all of the people in history who risked it all to pursue their '(insert demeaning adjective here)' ideas.
many were called crazy at the time now they are considered geniuses, makes you wonder how many "whackos" now will go down as the next historical advancer of the human race. I love lists like these they always open up to the what ifs and make you think about todays theories
There's something very frightening about a car's wings deploying on the freeway and just "taking off". With everything that goes wrong with MY car, I don't think I would ever trust one enough to fly.
Still, the prediction wasn't that bad, nor that far off, if you consider the history of the flying car:
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/flying-car1.htm
Why do people keep putting these symbols- * – in the word something, making it so****ing. About 3 people have done this, is their a reason?
Okay mine just did it to, even when I typed the word correctly. What's going on?
Swears and the word dating, or gnitad, to spell it backwards, are also replaced by the symbols.
I have noticed this in every list I have read… I think perhaps it is an automatic function because potential "objectionable" words have been **** out. As for the word s o m e t h i n g, the letters being removed spell M E T H. Drug reference auto objection? Let's try: *****!!!
Good list, but I'm not sure your title is accurate. Maybe just Top Ten Embarrassing Predictions, because a lot of them (number's 11, 10 and 6, among others) aren't really scientific. Other than that, a few typo's, and the oft-commented on repeat, it was alright.
Wow… especially considering the time #14 is epically wrong.
Another list devoted to the arrogance of the highly learned. I'm not spending the night in the cemetary's where these guys are buried, cuz I'd never get any sleep from all the noise of them rolling in their graves!!!
Good Old Lord Kelvin, wrong again.
you could include just about everything Al Gore has said over the last 10 years
A little fast and loose with the science part of it, but otherwise pretty entertaining. I'm pretty sure that some of those tea party folks are providing material for another list along this vein – unfortunately it'd be a current event.
Popular Science has a prediction for 2011 to be the year the Terrafugia Transition will make the market at $200,000. One of the first flying cars!
My guess is that about 50% percent of these "quotes" are exaggerated, urban legend or just made up
I feel bad for Lord Kelvin now. Poor guy.
These just go to see that every single one of us has a veil just in front of our eyes. These were respected men of their time, but with limited technology one is bound to make those assumptions, I wonder in a hundred years what ideas will people be laugthing at us for….
My oown prediction: Currncy as we know it will cease to exist (thanks Visa and MC)
First of all, the power of hindsight is one that should not be taken for granted. That being said, number 15 only seems ridiculous to us now because it has never been done and nobody can fathom its realization. But the people who said everything else on the list also thought that what they were saying was the truth, in that they could not fathom any other outcome. I think including an unrealized prediction weakened the list for me.
Some others I found:
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” — Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
or
“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
or
“Space travel is bunk.” — Sir Harold Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal of the UK, 1957 (two weeks later Sputnik orbited the Earth)
just so you know, duell never said anything like that
It's like Romeo Void said in the 80's – "Never say 'never.'"
In which case he broke his own rule. He should have said "(mumble) say (mumble)"
Debunking of the Duell quote: http://www.myoutbox.net/posass.htm
Also, Nos. 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, and 13 are not scientific predictions.
I'm not a big fan of this list. Perhaps some of these have been taking out of context. They could have been sarcasm or they may have been chopped to mean something totally different. Wish you would have went into detail about the quotes.
since we're always keen to catastrophisms it would be nice to remember Malthus and his scientific theory of development and how highly he was thought of in his days!
How About "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"
Whatever else that sentence is or isn't, it isn't a scientific prediction.
1 extremely embarrassing title
not science predicted this, humans did. and humans make mistakes or say stupid things. btw some of the quotes were not so embarrassing at the time they were spoken
Not to bad – but you have had better lists J.F.
Agreed.
Go have a look on the weather list – I left you pictures of my weather. You in shorts and a vest, you.
I saw the pics my gawd no way could I survive anything like that.
What do you guys do for fun over their no no no never in my life Im shivering here just thinking about all that snow.
Worst of all if you are a male and need the loo – imagine taking off you gloves and unzipping about 6 layers of zips to reach willie, and by that time he is so cold he has all but retracted into his little shell.
Thanks Mom the pics were appreciated.
Most of these predictions were not made with a science as a basis, by scientists who were asked by popular media about the new craze which wasn’t in their field.
1. He merely said he didn’t think it would catch on with the public. He made no comment on the science behind it, and as such this quote has little to do with science and can’t be construed as being embarrassing to science in any way.
2. A personal opinion, no science behind it, not aimed at the science behind it and not an embarrassment.
6. Again, where is the science, or any embarrassment?
7. And absolutely right he was! All reasons for any upset and/or shock are *****-poor.
10. No science, no embarrassment to it or its methods or teachings.
13. Same here.
14. If you strip everything to its basics, it is actually a ring of truth to it.
15. There are flying cars. The reason they are not on the market is not due to the lack of technology to make it fly, but to keep them safe in the hands of humans. Generally dumb as we are. Also, “a few” is not a definite measurement. In the grand scheme of things, even a hundred decades is a tiny amount.
This seems to me an attack on science, from the very over-exaggerated title, to its loose use of the words “science” and “embarrassing.” I smell a bias in favor of creation theory – another word slung around loosely.