Cal Thomas: Forecasts, failures, and the future

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s the first day of 2026! Social media, broadcast television, and YouTube are full of predictions for the new year.

But WORLD commentator Cal Thomas looks back at some predictions from the past…and suggests there’s only one thing we can know for sure.

CAL THOMAS: There was a time when prognosticators enjoyed predicting what would happen in the future, especially around the end of the old year. It's now fun to recall them, because they seem so spectacularly wrong.

Modern future tellers take note. In 1883 Lord Kelvin, president of the Royal Society, predicted, “X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” A New York Times story from 1936 said a rocket will never be able to leave the Earth's atmosphere. A Boeing engineer once predicted a bigger plane than the 247 would never be built. That plane was a twin engine prop that carried only 10 people.

The genius Albert Einstein said in 1932 there is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will. Here's a personal favorite. Henry Morton, president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, said of Thomas Edison's light bulb, “everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize it as a conspicuous failure.” The year was 1880.

In 1903 the president of the Michigan Savings Bank advised Henry Ford's lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Company. I bet he regrets that. The great movie producer Darryl Zanuck said in 1946 “television won't last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” Apparently not.

In 1960 Newsweek magazine recommended what it thought were great tourist locations. One of them was Vietnam. The magazine said Vietnam was a great place for wanting to get away from it all.

Recent predictions have been about climate change. Various people have predicted apocalyptic ends, like Miami being under water by now and the earth burning up. From Al Gore to Greta Sundberg have come different dates when these events would occur. All have proved wrong.

Recall what Jesus said about taking no thought of tomorrow, which will take care of itself. He holds the future, and so we don't have to be concerned about it. One prediction that can be made with certainty. As we enter 2026 we are one year closer to his return.

Happy New Year, and keep your eyes on the eastern sky.

I'm Cal Thomas.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.