“There are two times in a man’s life when he should not speculate: when it can’t afford it and when he can.” – Mark Twain
What is Worst Wrong Predictions about? You could easily say it’s about a future that ain’t what it used to be and about the incredibly dumbass things, people who should know better, say.
Looking just beyond the horizon is tantalizing and seems so plausible. And the more educated and expert people are the more they seem to enjoy hanging “truth” on their futuristic pronouncements. It’s a temporary truth at best because time keeps marching on and sooner or later the calendar catches up with the date of the predictions and then the experts are shown up as just taking a guess after all and not a good guess at that.
Imagine the audience, in 1966, when Glenn Seaborg, the 1967 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and head of the United States Atomic energy Commission, was giving a speech before the Women’s National Democratic Club, do you think he was met by wild laughter and resorted to dodging tossed tomatoes? No, of course not because he was bestowed the status of “wise seer” and was assumed to have the ability to pull back the cloudy curtains and peek into the future. Nonetheless, Mr. Seaborg’s prediction about the typical American home’s kitchen robotic helper at the very beginning of the 21st century fell very short of reality.
Mr. Seaborg confidently said,
“By 2000 a box shaped, multi-armed robot would take on the many tasks of housewives including simultaneously sweeping dusting, vacuuming, washing and picking up your husband’s clothing.”
Some people pay money to others for ‘psychic readings.’ I think people are attracted that way because of present insecurities and a snippet of a map to the future is what they want to secure a toehold towards the path forward. In her day psychic Jeane Dixon had a huge following; President Richard followed her predictions, as did Nancy Reagan. She was often described as having predicted the Kenney assassination but this fallacy has been disproven many times.
* She predicted the World War III would begin in 1958.
* She predicted Nixon not John F. Kennedy would be elected as U.S. President in 1960.
* She predicted the world would end on February 4, 1962.
* She predicted the U.S. would have a female President in 1962.
* She predicted the Antichrist was born in the Middle East on February 5, 1962.
* She predicted a cure for cancer in 1967.
* The U.S. landed men on the moon in 1969; she predicted the Soviets would get there first.
* She predicted a comet would hit the Earth in the 1980s.
* She predicted peace on Earth by the year 2000.
There are people we expect to be level headed and not shove their foot in their mouths or in this case shove a flipper in his mouth. In 1962 none other than the underwater explorer, diving phenomenon and captain of the Calypso Jacques Cousteau who suggested:
“We are now moving toward an alteration of human anatomy, to give man almost unlimited freedom underwater. Surgery will affix a set of artificial gills to a man’s circulatory system, which will permit him to breath oxygen from the water like a fish. Then the lungs will be bypassed and he will be able to live and breathe in any depth for any amount of time without harm.”
Fifty years would have made his deadline about 2012 – how about it, are you ready to make like Tom Hanks in ‘Splash’ and live underwater? Or how about a life underwater with the ‘Thump – Thump - - Thump – Thump of a ‘Jaws’ creature looming somewhere?
Future predictions are like a boomerang that is just flung out and as it disappears off into the distance the person tossing it discounts its significance until it returns with full force smashing them in the face.
But at least we the future, get some humor out of their errors. You must admire forecasters confidence, after all the chances of a major prediction about the future being accurate is probably about the s
What is Worst Wrong Predictions about? You could easily say it’s about a future that ain’t what it used to be and about the incredibly dumbass things, people who should know better, say.
Looking just beyond the horizon is tantalizing and seems so plausible. And the more educated and expert people are the more they seem to enjoy hanging “truth” on their futuristic pronouncements. It’s a temporary truth at best because time keeps marching on and sooner or later the calendar catches up with the date of the predictions and then the experts are shown up as just taking a guess after all and not a good guess at that.
Imagine the audience, in 1966, when Glenn Seaborg, the 1967 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and head of the United States Atomic energy Commission, was giving a speech before the Women’s National Democratic Club, do you think he was met by wild laughter and resorted to dodging tossed tomatoes? No, of course not because he was bestowed the status of “wise seer” and was assumed to have the ability to pull back the cloudy curtains and peek into the future. Nonetheless, Mr. Seaborg’s prediction about the typical American home’s kitchen robotic helper at the very beginning of the 21st century fell very short of reality.
Mr. Seaborg confidently said,
“By 2000 a box shaped, multi-armed robot would take on the many tasks of housewives including simultaneously sweeping dusting, vacuuming, washing and picking up your husband’s clothing.”
Some people pay money to others for ‘psychic readings.’ I think people are attracted that way because of present insecurities and a snippet of a map to the future is what they want to secure a toehold towards the path forward. In her day psychic Jeane Dixon had a huge following; President Richard followed her predictions, as did Nancy Reagan. She was often described as having predicted the Kenney assassination but this fallacy has been disproven many times.
* She predicted the World War III would begin in 1958.
* She predicted Nixon not John F. Kennedy would be elected as U.S. President in 1960.
* She predicted the world would end on February 4, 1962.
* She predicted the U.S. would have a female President in 1962.
* She predicted the Antichrist was born in the Middle East on February 5, 1962.
* She predicted a cure for cancer in 1967.
* The U.S. landed men on the moon in 1969; she predicted the Soviets would get there first.
* She predicted a comet would hit the Earth in the 1980s.
* She predicted peace on Earth by the year 2000.
There are people we expect to be level headed and not shove their foot in their mouths or in this case shove a flipper in his mouth. In 1962 none other than the underwater explorer, diving phenomenon and captain of the Calypso Jacques Cousteau who suggested:
“We are now moving toward an alteration of human anatomy, to give man almost unlimited freedom underwater. Surgery will affix a set of artificial gills to a man’s circulatory system, which will permit him to breath oxygen from the water like a fish. Then the lungs will be bypassed and he will be able to live and breathe in any depth for any amount of time without harm.”
Fifty years would have made his deadline about 2012 – how about it, are you ready to make like Tom Hanks in ‘Splash’ and live underwater? Or how about a life underwater with the ‘Thump – Thump - - Thump – Thump of a ‘Jaws’ creature looming somewhere?
Future predictions are like a boomerang that is just flung out and as it disappears off into the distance the person tossing it discounts its significance until it returns with full force smashing them in the face.
But at least we the future, get some humor out of their errors. You must admire forecasters confidence, after all the chances of a major prediction about the future being accurate is probably about the s
