However, he was concerned about the idea, stating, “How will youths of 20 be able to compete in the professions or business against vigorous men still in their prime at 120, with a century of experience on which to draw”?
In 1904, The New York Times reported on a debate between a brain specialist and a physician about the dangers of high-speed automobiles. One of the most significant arguments was that our brains wouldn’t be able to keep up with the speed of the car.
The report states, “It remains to be proved how fast the brain is capable of traveling […] If it cannot acquire an eight-mile per hour speed, then an auto running at the rate of 80 miles per hour is running without the guidance of the brain, and the many disastrous results are not to be marveled at.”
Before the explosion in popularity of smartphones, some people were skeptical about the idea of a personal phone doubling as a kind of computer. As late as 2007, the CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, proclaimed that “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”
Maybe that was just wishful thinking so Microsoft stayed relevant, or maybe he really believed it. Either way, he couldn’t have been further with the truth, seeing that smartphones, especially the iPhone, are some of the world’s best-selling products.
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