Meme edits 1949 Popular Mechanics forecast, swapping "Computers" for "Fabs" to mock AI predictions
AviatorAshley · x · 2026-11-05
AviatorAshley "fixed" a 1949 Popular Mechanics quote shared by kwharrison13 — claiming future computers "may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh only 1½ tonnes" — by crossing out "Computers" and writing "Fabs."
The joke: decade-spanning tech predictions age terribly, whether about vacuum tubes in 1949 or today's AI and chip-fab forecasts. The original quote comes from Ananyo Bhattacharya's von Neumann biography The Man From The Future.