Worst and Best Predictions on Technology

prostoalex writes "Dow Jones News asked several mahor scientists and technologists about their worst and best predictions of the future. The story, republished at Yahoo! Finance Singapore quotes Lester Thurow, Professor of management and economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management; Nicholas Negroponte, Founder and director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab; Glover Ferguson, Chief scientist, Accenture; Alan Nugent, Chief technology officer, Novell; Peter Cochrane, Director, ConceptLabs; Michael Earl, Dean, Templeton College, University of Oxford. There seems to be a common agreement on having overrated the ability of machines to talk back to users and vice versa."

Comments

Talking to computers

[stewby18]

Worst prediction: People would be talking to computers.

What's he talking about? I talk to computers all the time, especially Windows machines. "What the hell do you mean the zip drive can't be found?! It's right there!"

Thomas Watson Senior, Chairman of IBM, 1943

[edgrale]

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson Senior, Chairman of IBM, 1943

They missed everything ESR said

[JohnTheFisherman]

Like Microsoft collapsing in 6 months back in 2000, and more recently, Windows becoming obsolete with the advent of the new $299 Linux boxes from WalMart.