>nobody could imagine a Manhattan Project at that time, and it wasn't obvious that it was even possible, but there was a clear possibility. That’s exactly the

>nobody could imagine a Manhattan Project at that time, and it wasn't obvious that it was even possible, but there was a clear possibility. That’s exactly the point. And yet the Manhattan project was less than a decade away. Lord Kelvin said his quote in 1895. Deforest said his in 1926. In the myopic timeframe they were all technically correct.* The GP stated that all those other problems were “obviously” intractable, but whose to say they won’t be solved under some ambitious effort in the next 20 years? *Aside: All three examples come from the same place in terms of being plausible in the timeframe they were made yet wrong in hindsight. I wonder if people are more fiercely defending the Einstein quote because he’s more revered in popular culture. It’s interesting that his quote is the only one being defended.