[hu3]

14 years ago I told my teacher at a very respected uni that real-time facial recognition would surely be used by gov for security.

He said I was insane and that this would be extremely hard to implement and it was very improbable that it would ever happen. He basically demoralized me in front of my colleagues.

Needless to say he failed to convince otherwise and I lost all respect for him.

[anigbrowl]

One rule of thumb I've found very useful is that if someone says a proposed or imagined outcome is impossible rather than asking how would that work, it's probably bullshit.

Obviously if they can follow through with a good reason like pointing out a violation of thermodynamics or some inherent mathematical paradox you should take that seriously, but the more reflexive the dismissal the less well-founded it usually turns out to be.