In 1977, Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corp, predicted that “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” When he made that prediction, the first microprocessors had only recently been on the market.
I think Ken Olsen’s prediction is the worst of all time but it is not easy to predict the growth of technology. Moore’s Law in 1965 said that computing would greatly increase in power while decreasing in cost at an exponential pace, but this is not intuitive thinking for us. Our minds expect technology to grow at a linear rate.
Ken Olsen’s prediction is obviously one of the worst technology predictions of all time because we have come to rely on computers for many things today including schoolwork, information, Youtube as well as social media platforms. When I am on vacation and do not have access to my laptop or computer, I feel cut off from the rest of the world because I’m so used to having a computer!
