As a teacher of History I spend much of my time encouraging students to review and reflect on the past; helping them to make judgments and draw conclusions about significant events that have taken place both in the recent and more distant past. We have taken the theme of ‘Past, Present and Future’ for the forthcoming edition of High Profile (which is likely to be published in February). Charlotte Greig has written an article focusing on predictions about the future that proved to be completely inaccurate. Charlotte writes: The chairman of IBM said in 1943 that he thinks “there is a world market for maybe five computers.” 1943 was the year when the first portable FM radio was designed, so at this point this statement seemed fairly realistic. In terms of computer technology the statement proved to be so completely and staggeringly wrong!
This article in the New Scientist makes for quite interesting reading: Can Science fiction Predict the Future? But if you want a really fantastic site when thinking about predictions for the future check out IBM’s 5 in 5 site
Here’s another one for you – Lord Kelvin said at the end of the 19th century that physics was finished, that everything had been understood!
Shame about General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and all that!
Some of the predictions we have included in High Profile are quite amazing! Hope you find them interesting and amusing!
Thanks for sharing the IBM 5in5 Susan!
Kat W