The Influence of Bell Labs

Just reading the book The Idea Factory, it was incredible amount of innovation. Lasers, early satellites, transistors.

And it was all done, apparently, at least in the beginning, because they hired smart people and they let them do what they wanted.

Haven't gotten to that part of the book.

I know the author, Jon. Delightful guy

The research done at Bell Labs is the foundation of the information age, however, Bell Labs sowed the seeds that made the post-divestiture AT&T a doomed enterprise from the start - there is a reason they only lasted ~20 years from divestiture 'til they were bought by one of their former children, SBC.

AT&T provided for most of its history, the best quality telephone service in the world, at a comparable price to anyone else, anywhere.

There were structural issues with the AT&T monopoly however, for example cross subsidization - the true cost of services was often hidden because they would use optional services (like toll calling) to subsidize basic access, and business lines would cross subsidize residential service.

The level that AT&T fought foreign connections (aka, bring your own phone), probably hastened their demise, in the end, the very technologies that AT&T introduced would turn long distance from a high margin, to low margin business - the brass at AT&T had to know that, but they still pinned the future of their manufacturing business on that - a manufacturing business that had never had to work in a competitive environment, yet was now expected to - because of this and other factors divestiture was doomed to failure.

I'm a believer in utilities being a natural monopoly, but AT&T was an example of effective regulatory capture, it did not, and does not have to be this way, however it was.

During my teenage and college years in the 2000s, I was inspired by what I’ve read about Bell Labs, and I wanted to work as a computer science researcher in industry. I’ve also been inspired by Xerox PARC’s 1970s and 1980s researchers. I pursued that goal, and I’ve worked for a few industrial research labs before I switched careers to full-time community college teaching a few months ago.

One thing I lament is the decline of long-term, unfettered research across the industry. I’ve witnessed more companies switching to research management models where management exerts more control over the research directions of their employees, where research directions can abruptly change due to management decisions, and where there is an increased focus on profitability. I feel this short-term approach will cost society in the long term, since current funding models promote evolutionary work rather than riskier, potentially revolutionary work.

As someone who wanted to become a researcher out of curiosity and exploration, I feel alienated in this world where industry researchers are harangued about “delivering value,” and where academic researchers are pressured to raise grant money and to publish. I quit and switched to a full teaching career at a community college. I enjoy teaching, and while I miss the day-to-day lifestyle of research, I still plan to do research during my summer and winter breaks out of curiosity and not for career advancement.

It would be great if there were more opportunities for researchers to pursue their interests. Sadly, though, barring a cultural change, the only avenues I see for curiosity-driven researchers are becoming independently wealthy, living like a monk, or finding a job with ample free time. I’m fortunate to have the latter situation where I have 16 weeks per year that I could devote outside my job.