Proof that as a species we’ve made little progress in our intelligence:
•H.M. Warner, head of Warner Bros. studio, rejecting a new movie technology in 1927: “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”
•An editorial in a Boston newspaper in 1865: “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.”
•French physiology professor Pierre Pachet in 1870: “Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is a ridiculous fiction.”