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Whether or not AT&T was far-seeing, they had a mandate to design and deliver universal telephone service, and cost-plus deal to pay for it, so it made sense to

Whether or not AT&T was far-seeing, they had a mandate to design and deliver universal telephone service, and cost-plus deal to pay for it, so it made sense to buy nice expensive things. Even when the mission was fulfilled and the economy started to restructure the company, it ran along for at least another 10 or 15 years before the real disruption started (the 1996 breakup that turned Bell Labs into Lucent). And even then, the labs contributed fundamental research in machine learning, quantum computing and databases, to name a few areas. As you say, that model of large-scale corporate R&D doesn't exist any more - there's no funding model to support it.

etrautmann 3y ago
How do you figure? The model now has been tech companies for the last 15 years.
- treyd 3y ago
  I can't speak for the previous commenter but it does seem there is a different character to the research work happening at FAANG-scale companies (which is still generally in service of their corporate strategy) vs the work that happened at Bell Labs back in the day (which was more abstract and less directly-commercializable). Bell Labs was more of a large team of brilliant researchers with ample resources to support their work, and it just had to be useful to somebody rather than be part of a product/service that could be sold directly.
  - shortrounddev2 3y ago
    You're right. The invention of the transistor was a multi-decade effort by scientists working outside of regular hours, essentially inventing the field of solid state physics. It's hard to imagine such a technology coming out of a publicly traded company like Google or Apple, whose year-to-year or even quarter-to-quarter behavior is as sensitive to changes in interest rates and short term market conditions as a balloon in the wind.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - throwaway7868 3y ago
    > which was more abstract and less directly-commercializable Related acecdote: Charles Townes described that after the invention of the maser, he had to make a case for Bell Labs to patent it, against some resistance. As he described it, the eventual winning phrase was: "Well, it could be used for telecomunication".
- jtbetz22 3y ago
  Brian Kernighan's book, "Unix: A History and a Memoir" paints a compelling picture of just how open-ended research at Bell Labs can be. FAANG do a lot of research, but the budgeting for those efforts is much more tightly controlled and connected to corporate strategy.

etrautmann 3y ago

How do you figure? The model now has been tech companies for the last 15 years.

treyd 3y ago
I can't speak for the previous commenter but it does seem there is a different character to the research work happening at FAANG-scale companies (which is still generally in service of their corporate strategy) vs the work that happened at Bell Labs back in the day (which was more abstract and less directly-commercializable). Bell Labs was more of a large team of brilliant researchers with ample resources to support their work, and it just had to be useful to somebody rather than be part of a product/service that could be sold directly.
- shortrounddev2 3y ago
  You're right. The invention of the transistor was a multi-decade effort by scientists working outside of regular hours, essentially inventing the field of solid state physics. It's hard to imagine such a technology coming out of a publicly traded company like Google or Apple, whose year-to-year or even quarter-to-quarter behavior is as sensitive to changes in interest rates and short term market conditions as a balloon in the wind.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- throwaway7868 3y ago
  > which was more abstract and less directly-commercializable Related acecdote: Charles Townes described that after the invention of the maser, he had to make a case for Bell Labs to patent it, against some resistance. As he described it, the eventual winning phrase was: "Well, it could be used for telecomunication".
jtbetz22 3y ago
Brian Kernighan's book, "Unix: A History and a Memoir" paints a compelling picture of just how open-ended research at Bell Labs can be. FAANG do a lot of research, but the budgeting for those efforts is much more tightly controlled and connected to corporate strategy.