About

You May Live to See Man-Made Horrors Beyond Your Comprehension is a quote spoken by Nikola Tesla at the first Electrical Exhibition in September 1898 in response to a question about militarizing his radio-controlled model rowboat invention. The quote has been used in memes including image macros and photoshops over the course of the 2000s, often in response to cringeworthy or cursed content. The quote is often written, "You will live to see man-made horrors …"

Origin

According to Quote Investigator,^[1] the quote first appeared in a 1947 Esquire magazine profile on Nikola Tesla. The article talks about an instance at the first Electrical Exhibition, which took place in September 1898 at Madison Square Garden. Tesla showed off a radio-operated steel rowboat at the exhibition. One demonstrator saw the potential in the boat to be militarized, suggesting that if you attached dynamite to the boat you could easily take out enemy ships. Tesla allegedly replied, "With this principle, you may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension." The quote's historical accuracy is not completely credible considering the gap of time between the event and the Esquire article.

Spread

The quote is often used in image macros on quote pages. For example, an image of the quote attached to some sort of metal was posted by Twitter^[3] page @fractivist in 2013 (shown below, left). In June 2014 blog Emily's Quotes^[4] posted an image macro of the quote over an image of a swan (shown below, right).

The quote is sometimes used in image macros and memes as a reaction to perceived cringeworthy content. For example, on June 15th, 2017, iFunny^[5] user KingCrimzon_2015 posted an image macro attaching the quote to content about a surgery that allows trans females to have children. On November 10th, 2020, now-deleted Tumblr^[8] user ailment posted, 'nikola tesla was like “you will live to see man made horrors beyond your comprehension' yeah dude and they’ll prolly be branded with your last name. how does that make you feel" referencing Elon Musk's company, Tesla. The post gained over 122,000 notes in a year. A screenshot of the post along with comments was shared by Instagram^[9] page thedisappointingexperience on January 31st, 2021, gaining over 21,000 likes in 10 months (shown below).

On February 9th, Instagram^[6] page scienceluxe posted the image of the quote on the piece of metal, gaining over 21,000 likes in nine months. On August 29th, iFunny^[2] user ecrs posted a version of the Hey Girls, Did You Know meme photoshopping the quote into the bottom captions, gaining over 5,700 smiles in three months (shown below).

On September 29th, iFunny^[7] user DominusTecum posted an Aww Sweet meme using the quote, gaining over 1,800 smiles in two months (show below).

Related Memes

Torment Nexus

Torment Nexus is a trope of creating a product that was originally described in fiction as something that for the benefit of humanity should never be created. Spawned by a viral tweet, the phrase Don't Create the Torment Nexus has been used to describe such occurrences, for example, MoviePass' eye-tracking technology, similar to a Black Mirror episode, and Netflix' Squid Game_ reality show, based on the show of the same name that commented on capitalism and human exploitation.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References