With the amount of communication we have today it is tough to go back to 1961 and remember a different time when there were wires all over the place for telecomunications. The Internet was not even an embryo at this time. Space travel was a race between the Soviets and US since Sputnik had flown in space. Satellites were in their infancy. Today the massive amount and the differenet uses of them could not have been dreamt by the 1961 FCC Commissioner.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/satellite1.htm
Sputnik 1 the first satellite
“There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television, or radio service inside the United States.” — T. Craven, FCC Commissioner, in 1961 (the first commercial communications satellite went into service in 1965).
To think that we use Satellites for many applications today that were predicted to fail. Television and movies in every home, radio, internet and spying are all applications satellites are used for today.
How satellites are launched into orbit.
Here are some more quotes the the Satellite have overcome.
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” — Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society, 1895.
“Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical (sic) and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.” - Simon Newcomb; The Wright Brothers flew at Kittyhawk 18 months later.
“The cinema is little more than a fad. It’s canned drama. What audiences really want to see is flesh and blood on the stage.” -– Charlie Chaplin, actor, producer, director, and studio founder, 1916
“A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.” — New York Times, 1936.
“Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.” — Mary Somerville, pioneer of radio educational broadcasts, 1948.
These are a few of the missed predictions. There are many more at this site.
http://listverse.com/history/top-30-failed-technology-predictions/
2 comments:
Actually, "wires" (including light fibers) are a good thing. The commissioner wasn't too far off. Because of the round trip delay, most live content, especially two way (phone and data), stays on the earth. Satellites are good for radio and TV broadcast and distribution, where the delay doesn't matter.
While looking up the history of the Internet, I found Imagining the Internet that contains communications networking predictions. According to the site, the Internet began in the early 1960s as an idea to interconnect multiple computer networks. The idea began reality in 1969 as ARPANET. Later, half of ARAPNET evolved into the internet. One tidbit I enjoy sharing with students is what we knew as surfing obtained its name from Vint Cerf on of the developers of internet protocol or IP.
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