- 잉글랜드 계간리뷰, 1825년 3월호
What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives traveling twice as fast as stagecoaches?
- The Quarterly Review, England (March 1825)
- 알프레드 벨쀼(프랑스 외과의사), 1839년
The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera. It is absurd to go on seeking it. . . . Knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient.
- Dr. Alfred Velpeau (1839) French surgeon
- 디오니수스 라드너, 1838년, 런던 University College 자연철학및 천문학 교수
Men might as well project a voyage to the Moon as attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic Ocean.
- Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1838) Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, University College, London
- A.W. 비커튼, 1926년, 뉴질랜드 Canterbury College 물리및 화학 교수
The foolish idea of shooting at the moon is an example of the absurd length to which vicious specialization will carry scientists working in thought-tight compartments.
- A.W. Bickerton (1926) Professor of Physics and Chemistry, Canterbury College, New Zealand
- 에라스무스 윌슨, 1878년, 옥스퍼드 대학교 교수
When the Paris Exhibition closes electric light will close with it and no more be heard of.
- Erasmus Wilson (1878) Professor at Oxford University
- 보스턴 포스트 사설, 1865년
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)
- Scientific American, 1909년 1월호
That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced.
- Scientific American, Jan. 2, 1909
- 켈빈 경, 1895년, 영국 수학및 물리학자
Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.
- Lord Kelvin, ca. 1895, British mathematician and physicist
- 켈빈 경, 1897년
Radio has no future.
- Lord Kelvin, ca. 1897.
- 리 드 포리스트, 1926년, 미국 라디오 선구자
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, 1926 (American radio pioneer)
- 아인쉬타인, 1932년
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.
- Popular Mechanics, 1949년 3월호
Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 19,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps only weigh 1.5 tons.
- Popular Mechanics, March 1949.
- 켄 올슨, 1977년, DEC 사장
There is no need for any individual to have a computer in their home.
- Ken Olson, 1977, President, Digital Equipment Corp.
- 토마스 왓슨, 1943년, IBM 회장
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
- Prentice Hall 업무용책 출판담당 편집자, 1957년
I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't lastout the year.
- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.
- IBM 고등컴퓨터시스템 엔지니어, 1968년, 마이크로칩에 대해서 언급하면서
But what ... is it good for?
- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
두 명을 태울 비행기도 만들고 열 댓 명까지 태울 비행기도 만들게 될 거라고 일반인들이 생각하는데, 공기중 무게부양 이론을 이해못해 하는 말이다.
- Harvard의 전문가와 교수들, 1908. 출처: 11/3/2014 뉴욕타임즈 의견란 기사 "Not a Flight of Fancy: Space Tourism Isn't Frivolous, or Impossible."
The public has greatly over-estimated the
possibilities of the aeroplane, imagining that in another generation
they will be able to fly over to London in a day. This is manifestly
impossible.
(While laymen might think that) because a machine will carry two
people another may be constructed that will carry a dozen, (in fact) those who
make this contention do not understand the theory of weight sustentation in the air.
- An expert at Harvard and two other professors, 1908. From The Opinion Pages, NewYork Times, 11/3/2014, "Not a Flight of Fancy: Space Tourism Isn't Frivolous, or Impossible"