The Future Is Now Trivia Quiz

Answer: telephone

Of the four choices, only the telephone is a device used to communicate. This sentence was written by someone at the Western Union company (which was responsible for sending telegraphs, the fastest way to communicate at the time). The chief engineer of the British Post Office also agreed with this writer, saying that "The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys."

Answer: Airplanes

The French marshal (the equivalent of an American general) said this when discussing whether it was worth building a fleet of airplanes to help defend France. The First World War would prove him wrong in less than five years.

Answer: automobile

This was said by a bank president who was advising a lawyer named Horace Rackham not to put money into a company called the Ford Motor Company. Rackham didn't listen and scraped up $5,000 to invest. The company soon became one of the most successful automobile companies in history and Rackham retired a multi-millionaire.

Answer: rocket

The New York Times was, and still is, one of the most respected newspapers in America. Six years later, Robert Goddard launched a rocket that would lead to the development of rockets that could fly into outer space. In 1969, as the Apollo 11 rocket was on its way to land a man on the moon, the Times published another editorial that withdrew the remark.

Answer: Television

This was said shortly after the invention of TV by Philo Farnsworth. Zanuck was one of the most influential men in Hollywood, so his opinion carried a lot of weight. But over a billion televisions later, it's clear that he was wrong.

Answer: machine gun

Hiram Maxim was the inventor of the machine gun. He honestly believed that his invention would eliminate war by making it too dangerous. It is unfortunate for the world that this was not the case.

Answer: computer

Computers have been the source of many terrible predictions. The magazine "Popular Mechanics" once predicted that computers would "only weigh 1.5 tons", or 3000 pounds. Another famous terrible prediction was that there was a market for only five computers, but that prediction was apparently made up.

Answer: woman

Margaret Thatcher was a British politician. Despite her words, in ten years, she ended up becoming the first woman Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Answer: Harry Potter

Of the answers, Harry Potter is the only one that is a wizard. The Harry Potter books are now among the best-selling books in history. Their author, J. K. Rowling, became one of the richest people in the world, because she didn't listen to this publisher.

Answer: internet

He also said that if the internet didn't collapse by 1996, he would eat his words. One year later, he took a printed copy of his words, put it in a blender, and ended up doing just that.