Behold some doomday predictions of certain Authorities in their fields that would'v killed beautiful dreams and inventions.

1. "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson (1874-1956), Chairman of IBM, in 1943

2. "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" -- H. M. Warner (1881-1958), founder of Warner Brothers, in 1927

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

4. "Everything that can be invented has been invented." -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

5. "Inventions reached their limit long ago, and I see no hope for further development." -- Julius Frontinus, 1st century A.D.

6. "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

7. "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.

8. ""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.

7. "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.)

8. "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."

9. "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.

10. "Space travel is bunk." -- Sir Harold Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal of Britain, 1957, two weeks before the launch of Sputnik

11. "All attempts at artificial aviation are not only dangerous to life but doomed to failure from an engineering standpoint." -- editor of 'The Times' of London, 1905

12. "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates (1955-), in 1981

13. "Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction". -- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

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

15. "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.

16. "I confess that in 1901, I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years . . . Ever since, I have distrusted myself and avoided all predictions." -- Wilbur Wright, 1908

17. "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre

18. "A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce with all its movements." -- Leonardo da Vinci, 'Treatise on the Flight of Birds,' 1505

19. "The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon". -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon- Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873

20. "You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck...I have no time for such nonsense." -- Napoleon, commenting on Fulton's Steamship

22. "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." -- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

23. "Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -- Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the Audion tube and a father of radio, 25 February, 1967.

24. "The aeroplane will never fly." -- Lord Haldane, Minister of War, Britain, 1907

25. "I suppose we shall soon travel by air-vessels; make air instead of sea voyages; and at length find our way to the moon, in spite of the want of atmosphere." -- Lord Byron, 1882

26. "A certain Liquor which they call Coffee...which will soon intoxicate the brain." -- G. W. Parry (1601)

27. "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

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

Do you have similar predictions?

"If Yar’Adua fails to contest in 2011, another governor will emerge as presidential candidate of PDP. Goodluck Jonathan will be robbed politically and would be disappointed even before the end of his tenure."..Primate Babatunde Elijah Ayodele of Inri Spiritual Home

"World war 1 is the Armageddon and the World is about to end"- - Charles Taze Russell founder of Jehovah Witness.

Here is a list of failed predictions from listverse.com

1. “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” — Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), maker of big business mainframe computers, arguing against the PC in 1977.

2. “We will never make a 32 bit operating system.” — Bill Gates

3. “Lee DeForest has said in many newspapers and over his signature that it would be possible to transmit the human voice across the Atlantic before many years. Based on these absurd and deliberately misleading statements, the misguided public … has been persuaded to purchase stock in his company …” — a U.S. District Attorney, prosecuting American inventor Lee DeForest for selling stock fraudulently through the mail for his Radio Telephone Company in 1913.

4. “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. Craven, FCC Commissioner, in 1961 (the first commercial communications satellite went into service in 1965).

5. “To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive, and then return to earth – all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances.” — Lee DeForest, American radio pioneer and inventor of the vacuum tube, in 1926

6. “A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.” — New York Times, 1936.

7. “Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical (sic) and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.” – Simon Newcomb; The Wright Brothers flew at Kittyhawk 18 months later.

8. “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” — Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society, 1895.

9. “There will never be a bigger plane built.” — A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that holds ten people

10. “Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality in 10 years.” -– Alex Lewyt, president of vacuum cleaner company Lewyt Corp., in the New York Times in 1955.

11. “This is the biggest fool thing we have ever done. The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives.” — Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy during World War II, advising President Truman on the atomic bomb, 1945.[6] Leahy admitted the error five years later in his memoirs

12. “The energy produced by the breaking down of the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine.” — Ernest Rutherford, shortly after splitting the atom for the first time.

13. “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

14. “The cinema is little more than a fad. It’s canned drama. What audiences really want to see is flesh and blood on the stage.” -– Charlie Chaplin, actor, producer, director, and studio founder, 1916

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

It shows how limited Knowledge can limit man...Never say never.

Nice one Alumnus

People are just read without contributing...

A bird may not be an 'instrument' but I don't see how that claim by da Vinci has been proven wrong.

@ 26

Caffeine intoxication is probably what is being referred to there.

@ 27

He was wrong on the timing, but a car with foldable wings that can fly did make its debut recently.

Lesson learnt: never under-estimate the power of the human intellect, for it is God-given,

Tony Spike: Lesson learnt: never under-estimate the power of the human intellect, for it is God-given,

yes o.
where would god be without human intellect?

moderattor:
Did you just smoke ganja?

no o
i only read genesis.
has the same effect.

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

Heh.

Nice post.

Yeah, in general...I am hesitant to say that anything is impossible. Human beings are pretty creative animals...you can never know what they'll come up with next.

Interesting.

The entire planet can be turned to a hotspot and i dont have to pay internet bill to be on Nairaland ?

Nigeria will be a successful state- Herbert Macauley

It will be years --not in my time-- before a woman will become Prime Minister."
--Margaret Thatcher, October 26th, 1969.

“We will never make a 32 bit operating system.” — Bill Gates

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” — A memo at Western Union, 1878 (or 1876).

So the founder of Jehovah's witness was a false prophet?.... Hmm smh

Logic Mind:

no o
i only read genesis.
has the same effect.

Now i understand
You must be an Atheist

To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.
( Albert Einstein - The Merging of Spirit and Science)
World's greatest scientist ever.
That's his opinion though

"Boko Haram will be dealt with within three months" - Goodluck Jonathan

hmm

They cant always win it

Nairaland impossibility theorists beware!!!

Not in my life time will Manchester city win and dominate the Barclays premier league.
Sir Alex Ferguson.

Nigeria will soon join the countries with constant electricity - Gowan, Muhammed, Shagari, Buhari, Babangida, Shonekan, Abacha, Abubakar, Obasanjo, Yar'dua, Jonathan (pick a year. . .any year)

There will be an increase in Employment Rate in Nigeria - See Above

Nigeria will have the highest average GDP growth in the world over the next 40 years - David Cameron (July 22, 2011)

Nigeria will be great because God Loves Nigeria - Nigerians (Every second of every minute of every hour of every single day)

canadaik: Nigeria will be a successful state- Herbert Macauley

Azikiwe's protege. No wonder the Brits were able to hoodwink him!

careytommy:
Azikiwe's protege. No wonder the Brits were able to hoodwink him!

Zik was his protege, not the other way around, though.

And I don't know if there's any evidence that Macaulay ever said that although I get the point.

@ op

27 has come to pass recently hahaha.. I recently saw it on BBC. This implies it isn't a faulty prediction.

PhysicsQED: @ 27

He was wrong on the timing, but a car with foldable wings that can fly did make its debut recently.

Yes, true..

'If hillary clinton gets a race against John Edwards and barrack obama,she is goin 2 be d nominee. Gore is d only threat 2 her,then Barrack Obama is not going 2 beat Hillary Clinton in a single democratic primary'. -Bill Kristol, December 19,2006. On d Us presidential elections.

someone once said metal will never be made a floating vessel, much less, to cross the ocean (this was despite his knowledge of the principle of floatation)

Sanguine77: Not in my life time will Manchester city dominate the Barclays premier league.
Sir Alex Ferguson.

Fixed. And i don't see it happening either.

Chelsea cannot win on penalties - Paul Parker

Nigeria will never be like the arab nations,a nation of suicide bombers. Zediccus, 2001, after the events of 9/11