The Late, Great, Bell Labs

Arun has a post lamenting the decline and fall of one of the great technological treasures of the twentieth century, Bell Labs. The focus of the post is a song celebrating the greatness of Bell Labs - ironically, it was already a posthumous celebration, commissioned by the parasitic growth that ultimately consumed and destroyed Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies (now part of Alcatel, I think).

Bell Labs research was funded by the profits of the AT&T telephone monopoly, and when that monopoly was dismembered, Bell Labs was spun off as Lucent. Fundamental research is a hothouse plant though, and life in the new world where every component was expected be a profit center was not congenial to it.

Telephone calls are cheaper now, of course, but the loss was great, and it is hard to see such an institution existing again in the modern world. In principle, government labs could carry out a mission like this, but in practice they are usually too subject to the whims of political intrigue. CERN perhaps still embodies some of these virtues.

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