Predictions
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“there will be no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network. There will be no newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper form. Everything gets delivered in an electronic form.”
Steve Ballmer · Said 5 Jun 2008 · Target: 2018
Technology
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“Google stock reaches $1,000.”
Jim Cramer · Said 2 Jan 2008 · Target: 2008
MarketsTechnology
Partly right ●●●●●
“I think these things [social networks] are going to have some legs, and yet there’s a faddishness, a faddish nature about anything that basically appeals to younger people”
Steve Ballmer · Said 2 Oct 2007 · Target: by 2017
Technology
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”
Steve Ballmer · Said 29 Apr 2007 · Target: 2010s
Technology
Partly right ●●●●●
“I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had”
Bill Gates · Said 27 Jan 2007 · Target: 2012
Technology
Unresolvable ●●●●●
“The hottest company right now — the one nobody thinks can do any wrong — may just be a one-hit wonder.”
Steve Ballmer · Said 12 May 2005 · Target: No date given
Technology
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“Two years from now, spam will be solved”
Bill Gates · Said 24 Jan 2004 · Target: Jan 2006
Technology
Accurate ●●●●●
“achieving even a conservatively high estimate of the information processing capacity of the human brain … will be achieved by conventional silicon circuits prior to 2020.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 9 Apr 2002 · Target: 2019
Technology
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America”
Bill Gates · Said 11 Nov 2001 · Target: 2006
Technology
Partly right ●●●●●
“I guarantee, ten years from now I'm going to yell at my television set, 'Hey, Bill; did you see that putt?'”
Steve Ballmer · Said 19 Apr 2000 · Target: 2010
Technology
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“And we will keep doing so until this period is over – and it is very far from ending”
Jim Cramer · Said 29 Feb 2000 · Target: No date given
MarketsTechnology
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“But 200 calculations a second times a hundred trillion-fold parallelism is about 20 million billion calculations per second, or about 20 billion mips. And we'll achieve that in a thousand dollar PC or equivalent by around 2019.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Aug 1999 · Target: 2019
TechnologyAI
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“Certainly within the next 20 to 25 years we will succeed in fully decoding the human brain just as we're now nearing completion of the decoding of the human genome.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Aug 1999 · Target: 2024
TechnologyAIHealth
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“It will be nearly impossible for corrupt governments to steal wealth from their people through their old means”
Peter Thiel · Said 1 Jul 1999 · Target: 2000s
TechnologyEconomy
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“The all-enveloping tactile environment is now widely available and fully convincing.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Jan 1999 · Target: 2019
Technology
Inaccurate ●●●●●
““Phone” calls routinely include high-resolution three-dimensional images projected through the direct-eye displays and auditory lenses.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Jan 1999 · Target: 2019
Technology
Accurate ●●●●●
“Individuals primarily use portable computers.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Jan 1999 · Target: 2009
Technology
Right, but late ●●●●●
“Warfare is dominated by unmanned intelligent airborne devices.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Jan 1999 · Target: 2009
GeopoliticsTechnology
Right, but late ●●●●●
“Translating telephone technology (where you speak in English and your Japanese friend hears you in Japanese, and vice versa) is commonly used for many language pairs.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Jan 1999 · Target: 2009
AITechnology
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“Rotating memories and other electromechanical computing devices have been fully replaced with electronic devices.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Jan 1999 · Target: 2019
Technology
Accurate ●●●●●
“A $1,000 personal computer can perform about a trillion calculations per second.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Jan 1999 · Target: 2009
Technology
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“Intelligent roads are in use, primarily for long-distance travel. Once your car's computer guidance system locks onto the control sensors on one of these highways, you can sit back and relax.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Jan 1999 · Target: 2009
Self-drivingTechnology
Right, but late ●●●●●
“A company west of the Mississippi and north of the Mason-Dixon Line has surpassed a trillion dollars in market capitalization.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Jan 1999 · Target: 2009
MarketsTechnology
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“Keyboards still exist, but most textual language is created by speaking.”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Jan 1999 · Target: 2009
TechnologyAI
Right, but late ●●●●●
“Supercomputers match at least the hardware capacity of the human brain … 20 million billion calculations per second (20 petaflops).”
Ray Kurzweil · Said 1 Jan 1999 · Target: 2009
Technology
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's.”
Paul Krugman · Said 10 Jun 1998 · Target: 2005
TechnologyEconomy
Accurate ●●●●●
“Of course many people will say that genetic engineering on humans should be banned. But I rather doubt if they will be able to prevent it. Genetic engineering on plants and animals will be allowed for economic reasons and someone is bound to try it on humans.”
Stephen Hawking · Said 6 Mar 1998 · Target: No date given
HealthTechnology
Pending ●●●●●
“Nevertheless I am confident we will discover it by the end of the 21st century and probably much sooner.”
Stephen Hawking · Said 6 Mar 1998 · Target: 2100
Technology
Inaccurate ●●●●●
“I expect super symmetry will be confirmed eventually by experiments at CERN in Geneva.”
Stephen Hawking · Said 6 Mar 1998 · Target: by 2018
Technology
Pending ●●●●●
“Nevertheless, I am sure that during the next century, people will discover how to modify both intelligence, and instincts like aggression.”
Stephen Hawking · Said 1 Jan 1996 · Target: 2100
HealthTechnology