“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit”
Did Gutenberg expect his invention would, 150 years later, set the whole Europe ablaze, and ultimately break the hold the Church had over people? Did he expect it to be a key component leading to accumulation of knowledge that, 400 years later, will finally make technological progress visibly exponential? On that note, did Watt realize he's about to kick-start the exponent that people will ride all the way to the actual Moon less than 200 years later? Or did Goddard, Oberth and Tsiolkovsky realize that their work on rocketry will be critical in establishing world peace within a century, and that the way this peace will be established is through a Mexican standoff between major world powers, except with rocket-propelled city-busting bombs instead of guns?