There are similar statements from other people in the computing field around that time<p><a href="https://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/predictive-text-darwins-ibm-computers.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/predictive-text-dar...</a><p>Sir Charles Darwin (grandson of the naturalist) who was head of the UK’s computer research centre, the NPL (National Physical Laboratory) said in 1946:<p><i>“it is very possible that … one machine would suffice to solve all the problems that are demanded of it from the whole country”</i><p>Douglas Hartree, Mathematician and early UK computer pioneer said in 1950: <i>"We have a computer here in Cambridge, one in Manchester and one at the [NPL]. I suppose there ought to be one in Scotland, but that's about all."</i><p>This 1969 talk by Lord Bowden about the 1950s explains the thinking behind that statement:<p><a href="https://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acl/literature/reports/p014.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acl/literature/reports/...</a><p><i>I went to see Professor Douglas Hartree, who had built the first differential analysers in England and had more experience in using these very specialised computers than anyone else. He told me that, in his opinion, all the calculations that would ever be needed in this country could be done on the three digital computers which were then being built - one in Cambridge, one in Teddington and one in Manchester. Noone else, he said, would ever need machines of their own, or would be able to afford to buy them. He added that machines were exceedingly difficult to use, and could not be trusted to anyone who was not a professional mathematician, and he advised Ferranti to get out of the business and abandon the idea of selling any more. It is amazing how completely wrong a great man can be.</i>