Lest We Rest
erco
Posts: 20,259
... on our innovation laurels. Great article on Bell Labs and real old-fashioned innovation: transistors, solar cells, satellites. Now get inspired and get back to inventing, you Rascals!
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/opinion/sunday/innovation-and-the-bell-labs-miracle.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&smid=fb-share
Edit: Now I see that ElectricAye beat me to it long ago.... But it's worth restating
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?138234-An-interesting-perspective-on-innovation&highlight=bell+labs
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/opinion/sunday/innovation-and-the-bell-labs-miracle.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&smid=fb-share
Edit: Now I see that ElectricAye beat me to it long ago.... But it's worth restating
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?138234-An-interesting-perspective-on-innovation&highlight=bell+labs
Comments
While I'm very glad we have computers to all sort of tedious computing for us, it could be argued (since I'm in an argumentative mood) that the transistor killed millions of more jobs than it created.
Think of all the bookkeepers, switchboard operators, newspaper workers and a long list of other workers, the transistor and computer took jobs from.
I also think it could be argued that communication technology is much more affordable (and possibly more innovative) now that Ma Bell's monopoly has been broken and Bell Labs is no longer the only communication tech company with money to spend on research.
I sounds like Bell Labs would have been a nice place to work. Almost as nice as working for Hot Wheels?
Interesting take. Well, that genie's outta the bottle and there's no going back. Well, if I use all my relays, I might be able to make a telephone switchboard, if Mildred & Myrtle are still available to operate it.
Wait till you see my latest. My finest work yet, and you'll recognize it as mine right away! About a year, I'm afraid. You'll just have to trust me until then.
AOK, you've got my trust for a year.
I think what's radically different from those innovation "good ole days" vs. today is that in the good ole days, investment in innovation yielded jobs for the entire society, so the entire economic food chain (factory workers, secretaries, maintenance dudes, executives) got a piece of the pie, paid their taxes, and kept society running with an outlook that was fairly positive, freedom-oriented, forward-moving. It was capitalism at its best. In effect, everyone from the janitor to the CEO benefitted from the generation of new ideas. Nowadays, we have this utterly bizarre hybrid of "capitalist" exploitation of communist labor, which has been disrupting the normal food chain and screwing up the local tax base. Ideas might be generated by a group of people in one country, but now much of the manufacturing process has been moved, or is in the process of moving, elsewhere, breaking the food chain, wrecking the tax base, and disrupting the normal functions of government and society. In fact there's a whole new breed of entrepreneurs who will, for a cut of your profits, basically examine your idea and then mentor you on how to move it to Elsewhere as quickly as possible. They don't even want you to bother prototyping it here anymore. They've greased the rails for getting your ideas out of the country before you've even fired your final synapse of inspiration. For example, check out these characters: http://www.HAXLR8R.com/
Used to be, these kinds of people at least tried to look like they gave a $#@+ about the philosophies and principles that made their very existence possible, but nowadays, they don't even bother pretending anymore.