Customer Reviews

The Experts Speak : The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a fun book of humorous quotations many about scientific predictions that were WAY off the mark. My favorites concern computers, and I've received some of them over the internet. Since I'm concerned about Urban Legends, this book was very helpful in discerning the veracity of these statements-though the authors are careful to point out quotes that could be Urban Legends or ones that have become part of the culture, whether historically accurate or not. Some good examples are:
Regarding Radio (and, perhaps now, cordless phones, cell phones, and Voice Over IP):
Well-informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value. (Editorial in the Boston Post, 1865
The radio craze ... will die out in time. Thomas Alva Edison
I do not look upon any system of wireless telegraphy as a serious competition with our cables. Some years ago I said the same think and nothing has since occurred to alter my views. (Sir John Wolfe-Barry, Chief Executive of Western Telegraph Company at their annual stockholder's meeting in 1907

Regarding the development of computers:
Worthless. (Sir George Bidell Airy, K.C.B., M.A., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, estimating for the Chancellor of the Exchequer the potential value of the "analytical engine" invented by Charles Babbage, September 15, 1842. This resulted in the British government discontinuing its funding for Babbage. Today, however, Babbage is hailed as the inventor of the computer.)
I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year. (The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, Inc., 1957
Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1 ½ tons. (Popular Mechanics, March 1949. [Interestingly, I recently received a photo by internet of the predicted "home computer" from 1954-it was huge.]

Personal computers:
It is quite impossible that the noble organs of human speech could be replaced by ignoble, senseless metal. Jean Bouillaud, member of the French Academy of Sciences, referring to Thomas Edison's phonograph.
What the hell is it good for? (Robert Lloyd, Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, c.1968, reacting to colleagues who insisted that the microprocessor was the wave of the future.
We don't need you. You haven't got through college yet. (Hewlett-Packard executive, responding to Apple Computer founders Steve Jobs' and Steve Wozniak's attempts to interest the company in the "personal computer" they had designed, 1976.
Get your feet off my desk, get out of here, you stink, and we're not going to buy your product. (Joe Keenan, President of Atari, responding to Steve Jobs' offer to sell him rights to the new personal computer he and Steve Wozniak had developed, 1976; and, of course, the very famous "quote":
640K ought to be enough for anybody. Attributed to Bill Gates, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, 1981

Hello,

This book is a great book. I have two copies of ¡§The Experts Speak.¡¨ I have one at my house for reference and then another in my classroom (I teach economics, sociology, and psychology) and that¡¦s for reference too. The book is full of quotes both famous and not from ¡§experts¡¨ both famous and not, who have made predictions, and relayed facts and/or opinions that we later see to be simply wrong. The book itself is funny and interesting. Funny, to see how wrong man-kind has been in the past, and interesting to see how we¡¦ve been wrong, but also on speculating how much we are wrong about now and what the future generations will look back and laugh at our current ¡§experts¡¨ for. The book is broad and this should be mentioned at there are sections on religion, science, inventions, music, war, gender, medicine, and so on¡K so there really is something for everyone!

Lastly, I am not making fun of official experts here, I think they are doing the best they can and I would trust an expert who spends all their time studying a field and is subject to peer review by the other brightest minds of their generation before I trusted myself or someone else. What I am finding amusing is the pride we sometimes have at thinking we really have THE answers now, and in the past ¡§they¡¨ were so dumb, and we are so enlightened ƒº

Finally, I hope you like my review and vote nicely for it! Thanks and have a good time shopping.

Sam Kochel

This highly quotable and humorous--but accurately researched--book fills an important gap. It provides a unique window on history by demonstrating the uncertainty principle of so-called factualness. Using laughably fatheaded predictions from the ages as well as from just a few weeks ago, the authors show how profoundly wrong the "experts" are during any given moment. During the present bombardment of expert opinion from every direction, this book is especially valuable. You will never again be able to listen to the talking heads or read the newspaper in quite the same way after consulting even a single page of Cerf and Navasky! An excellent reference book, cautionary guide for any authority in any field, and a fine teaching text as well.

I predict this book will be the biggest seller in the universe from now until the end of time. Buy it for your great-great-great grandchildren at the present low price.

The idea behind this book is very nice, and the authors are quite successful at making great deal of fun, at the expense of the learned (or sometimes not so learned) experts, who should have known better. Unfortunately for an international reader, the vast majority of the events and personae selected for the book deals with the U.S.A., and may be of little interest to people outside of that country. In particular, if the sections on politics or sports make you more than chuckle occationally, it is a clear sign that you've been watching way too much american television recently.
Overall, it is not a bad book - however, neither it is as hillarious as some reviews would make you believe.

Awesome list of some of the most ignorant statements made by some of the most "important" people in recent history.I found it rather satisfying to know that even the "SMART" people in this world are just as "DUMB" as the rest of us from time to time.Read this book and you will probably think a little harder before you make any quick comments about things you aren't educated about.You will find some of the most outrageous comments ever made by people who are supposed to "know what they are talking about"Not only is it good to know everyone speaks too soon once in awhile, this book is so good it will also have you laughing and perhaps wondering how these "people" got into the high social position they did.Who knows perhaps anyone can be a big wheel if we're in the right place at the right time!!

This is a well-researched book; the editors certainly did their homework. There are so many subjects that these quotes fall into; really, this is an enjoyable (and humorous) read for any intelligent person.

This has become such a hit in our family that everyone wants one. Well written, extremely entertaining, and easy reference for looking up a specific topic. Several copies will be under our Christmas tree!

Just bought the book yesterday. It's a big laugh. I especially liked the quotations on the natural inferiority of women from such great names as Aristotle (!). Also had a hoot reading Reagan's stupid statements on so many subjects. These quotes are great to put in your sig files, fellow Cyberians!

I'm not giving it 5 stars only because some of the quotations were boring to me (on issues that don't interest me), but that's my subjective right.

This is one of my favorite gifts to give and seems to be one people like to receive and have fun with. You can read one sentence at a time, no need to pour through it. When people want to prognosticate about the future, or speculate about say "energy" or "alternate energy forms" drag this out, it's all been done before. Thousands of quotes, some you've heard before like Lord Kelvin's "Heavier than air ships won't fly" are there AND the authors have traced it to its origins. Some of the sources may be questionable, so if it really really matters for some reason, at least this book is a great starting point.

If I had one book to leave behind this would be it! A how-to-think-for-yourself guide that never gives advice but, simply, allows the reader discover it for him/herself. A sort of mental martial arts course for the wise. It uses the absurdity of the "experts" to negate their own would-be power. Read it and you'll never be the same. A path to personal freedom.