Well, since it is Friday I thought I'd post a little humor item, especially considering the quote from John von Neumann.
In an article in The Futurist magazine, writer Laura Lee catalogues some of the worst predictions of all time: "Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further developments." -Roman engineer Julius Sextus Frontinus, A.D. 100 "The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon." -John Eric Ericksen, surgeon to Queen Victoria, 1873 "Law will be simplified [over the next century]. Lawyers will have diminished, and their fees will have been vastly curtailed." -journalist Junius Henri Browne, 1893 "It doesn't matter what he does, he will never amount to anything." -Albert Einstein's teacher to Einstein's father, 1895 "It would appear we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology." -computer scientist John von Neumann, 1949 "The Japanese don't make anything the people in the U.S. would want." -Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, 1954 "Nuclear powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within 10 years." -Alex Lewyt, president of the Lewyt Vacuum Cleaner Company, quoted in the New York Times, June 10, 1955 "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 under Eisenhower, 1959 "By the turn of the century, we will live in a paperless society." -Roger Smith, chairman of General Motors, 1986 "I predict the internet ... will go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse." -Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld, 1995 Tom Kelman Commerce Bank of Kansas City (816) 760-7632 ***************************************************************************** If you wish to communicate securely with Commerce Bank and its affiliates, you must log into your account under Online Services at http://www.commercebank.com or use the Commerce Bank Secure Email Message Center at https://securemail.commercebank.com NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any attached files are confidential. The information is exclusively for the use of the individual or entity intended as the recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, copying, printing, reviewing, retention, disclosure, distribution or forwarding of the message or any attached file is not authorized and is strictly prohibited. If you have received this electronic mail message in error, please advise the sender by reply electronic mail immediately and permanently delete the original transmission, any attachments and any copies of this message from your computer system. ***************************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
