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A new article reveals that large corporations are investing less in science. From 1980 to 2006, publications by company scientists have declined in a range of industries. The result holds across a range of industries.
Investigators also found that the value attributed to scientific research has dropped, whereas the value attributed to technical knowledge (as measured by patents) has remained stable. Companies appear to be focusing more on developing existing knowledge and commercializing it, rather than on creating new knowledge through basic research.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171127124929.htm
[Abstract]: The decline of science in corporate R&D
Remembering AT&T Bell Labs, IBM Labs, Xerox PARC, HP Labs, TI, etc. In the current political and economic situation, do you think companies in USA have the will and means to reverse this decline?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Thursday November 30 2017, @03:32AM (3 children)
Anyone know what the tax rules were on R&D, "back then"?
I suspect the tax incentives for R&D were quite favourable. Also, with on-shore manufacturing, prototype to production could be done in-house, without too much IP leakage.
Now, by the time the CAD files have been emailed to China, a rival company has started knocking off copies.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 30 2017, @04:38AM
When IBM was drawing letters with individual atoms, that's not the kind of stuff that gets knocked off, but it is the kind of stuff that leads to innovations like their when their magnetic hard drive storage capacity leapfrogged the standard (Moore's law) increases by a factor of 5 one year...
They have more means, and less will than ever. The fact that they (we?) have such ample means seems to be eroding the will.
If "we" put on an Apollo mission today, like the Kennedy speech kicked off in 1961 - not only could we be there in less than 5 years, we could also do it for a much smaller fraction of GDP. It hasn't gotten easier to put men on the surface of the moon and return them safely, we're just that much more capable now. But, since we have the means, the will to do it is now missing. When noone had done anything like it before, it was thrilling, impressive, and carried all kinds of weight in the world. After we had done it a few times, in the public's mind it became an expensive waste of time. (Not to mention: we got damned lucky not killing an Apollo astronaut while high above LEO and even though we could do it safer today, that's far from a guarantee...) Mars? Meh. Four letters, starts with M, easily confused and the mission is way too long to hold the spotlight spot in the news cycle.
When Bell Labs was reducing vacuum tubes to transistors and then chips, reducing buildings full of telephone switchgear into tiny boxes, that was thrilling and impressive - at least to anyone who had a slight idea of the implications. The biggest thrill we've gotten lately is replacing pimply teenagers with a self-serve kiosk in fast food restaurants, not much different from the self-checkout lines at WalMart and Lowes, if you ask me.
Self driving cars, digital cameras, and all the rest continue to be disruptive to the status quo, but they're less revolutionary breakthroughs and more evolution of long existing technology. Researchers are proving out the basis for solid state Magnesium based batteries, but people are more excited by Elon's giant factory producing decade old Lithium Ion tech, and when Magnesium finally does come to market, it won't be the revolution that replacing tubes with transistors was.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @04:45AM (1 child)
When Bell Labs and company were formed, taxes in the US were still 5 percent for all income brackets, excluding some asset specific levies that were put into place (like the hemp/marijuana tax stamps and a variety of other things.)
Back in those days you innovated, or died. Or in some cases exclusively innovated if you had contacts who could turn around and monetize those inventions.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:37PM
Bell Labs was founded in 1925. [wikipedia.org]
The tax rate in 1925 was well above 5% [insidegov.com]
Your good-old-days revisionist history is trivially disprovable.