Bell Laboratories was catalyst one of the most important foundations of the information age. It gave us the transistor, cybernetics, the laser, LEDs. The computer language Unix was developed there. While it still exists in other forms of is no longer the same freewheeling assembly of thinkers it once was. Jeremy Bernstein gives the reader a series of snapshots of people working at the lab at the time of the AT&T breakup. We have both lost and gained things because of the breakup. We no longer have to have hardwired phones in our homes or to pay for each phone jack. We have cellular phone service. It was suggested to me that couldn't have exploded the way it did without the breakup. Guessing alternate histories is of course just a guess, but the fading of Bell Labs and it's creative contribution has been a real cost - also not quantifiable.
That speculation aside this snapshot of the lab is fascinating. Now I need to read the more contemporary version: The Idea Factory.
History is interesting because it is a good story. Sometimes we also can learn from it, but the lessons aren't always clear. ( )

This is another book which I remember vividly reading many years ago, and nearly idolizing the team from Bell Labs that accidentally stumbled upon the background radiation of the universe, and if I recall correctly, also gave us the closest practical example we have to anything reaching almost Zero degrees Kelvin.

This book deserves to be read again, and with care, as it explained a great many things, like the accidental discovery of important techniques and how researchers and experimenters need the leeway to take the time to follow up even seemingly unrelated ideas sometimes, contrary to our modern rushed and hurried short-term way of looking at outcomes. ( )

This is another book which I remember vividly reading many years ago, and nearly idolizing the team from Bell Labs that accidentally stumbled upon the background radiation of the universe, and if I recall correctly, also gave us the closest practical example we have to anything reaching almost Zero degrees Kelvin.

This book deserves to be read again, and with care, as it explained a great many things, like the accidental discovery of important techniques and how researchers and experimenters need the leeway to take the time to follow up even seemingly unrelated ideas sometimes, contrary to our modern rushed and hurried short-term way of looking at outcomes. ( )