The Lab That Invented The 21st Century

Go to http://piavpn.com/torscabinet to get 83% off from our sponsor Private Internet Access with 4 months free! Featuring technology invented by Bell Labs, like almost everything else you use over the course of an average day. In fact, these days it's rare to *not* be actively using something invented by Bell Labs. What else should Bell Labs have worked on? Patenting all 99 Names of God - https://www.patreon.com/torscabinet/membership Curing neurotypicality - https://x.com/parsons_tor The fart gun from the first Despicable Me - https://www.reddit.com/user/MrSluds/ Making catgirls real - https://www.instagram.com/tor.in.oregon/ Sources & Further Info Books: Three Degrees Above Zero: Bell Labs in the Information Age by Jeremy Bernstein, © 1984 Scribner's, ISBN 9780684181707 The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation by John Gertner, © 2012 Penguin, ISBN 9781594203282 A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable by John Steele Gordon, © 2002 Bloomsbury, ISBN 9780802713643 An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals, and Noise by John R. Pierce, © 1979 Courier Corporation, ISBN 9780486240619 Studies & Websites: How radar won the war: https://gizmodo.com/how-bell-labs-radar-dismantled-the-axis-powers-5897137 Simultaneous invention: Charles Süsskind, Radar as a Case Study in Simultaneous Invention; in Tracking the History of Radar, Blumtritt et al, ed, IEEE-Rutgers, 1994 Antitrust: https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/how-antitrust-enforcement-can-spur-innovation-bell-labs-and-1956-consent-decree The Carterfone case and its connection to net neutrality (remember the debate over net neutrality?): https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/carterfone-40-years/ And none of these were sources, but are relevant to stuff I talked about in the episode & complement it well: On fiber optics, a great work of science fact by one of the greatest living sci-fi authors: https://efdn.notion.site/Mother-Earth-Mother-Board-WIRED-a8ff97e460bc4ac1b4a7b87f3503a55c Could analog computers be the future? (more on those "non-binary AI chips"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVsUOuSjvcg Masterful 8-bit Sgt. Pepper, yes, the full album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irFmTOr6F44 Pilot wave theory of quantum mechanics (remember, all models are wrong, some are useful. this is one of the useful ones): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix9nJmz4mGg Ask my co-writer for this episode, Jim Hickstein (he's on the TCOC Discord; in fact, he's more active there than I am) if you want more sources. I was so relieved to be done editing this longthy episode (this episode sure has got some LONGTH), I forgot to include the "if you're still watching..." text at the end. So if you watched all the way to the end, comment "Those poor Ronettes". Also THERE IS A TOR'S CABINET MERCH STORE NOW, to be officially announced in the next episode. Get hype. 0:00 Intro 5:15 Ad 7:14 Part 1: Mission 10:42 Black 13:46 Radio Astronomy 14:21 Radar 20:02 Transistor 29:13 Shannon 32:42 Digital and Analog 36:12 Nyquist/Shannon 41:40 TAT-1 46:37 Lasers and Fiber 52:15 Part 2: Money 57:51 Monopoly 1:02:08 Part 3: Now 1:03:13 Next? 1:08:54 It's back!