Everything Everywhere Daily · Friday, October 2, 2026
In 1949, Popular Mechanics magazine underestimated the miniaturization of technology, predicting that future computers might only have 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh around 1.5 tons. This prediction was made when the ENIAC computer already used 18,000 tubes and weighed 30 tons.
“Computers in the future may only have 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh one and a half tons.”