E10: The magic of Bell Labs

We're joined by Jon Gertner (author of THE IDEA FACTORY: BELL LABS AND THE GREAT AGE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION) and Jimmy Soni (author of A MIND AT PLAY: HOW CLAUDE SHANNON INVENTED THE INFORMATION AGE) to discuss our favorite "house of magic" - Bell Labs! 

Can Bell Labs ever be recreated? What would Claude Shannon think of ChatGPT? What can we learn about "doing great things" from Bell Labs?

Shownotes:

• Bell Labs - Wikipedia page
• Claude Shannon - Wikipedia page
• Get Back (Beatles documentary)
• The Idea Factory - Jon's book about Bell Labs
• A Mind At Play - Jimmy's book about Claude Shannon
• The Ice At The End of The World - Jon's latest book about the melting ice sheet in Greenland
• The Founders - Jimmy's latest book about Paypal
• Jon's website
• Jimmy's website 
• Charlie's short story about the "Voyager 3" space probe

Creators & Guests

Host

Charlie Harrington

Computer programmer, cub novelist

Host

Oz Nova

Learn computer science with me: async via https://t.co/7DJHcrvyg1 or live via https://t.co/3txqrpBkwi. Or, https://t.co/pDTuKaskQZ

Guest

Jimmy Soni

Author of THE FOUNDERS (https://t.co/jqG6ViCdhp), A MIND AT PLAY (https://t.co/TYwP6jVrUj), and ROME'S LAST CITIZEN (https://t.co/DFzIHMAQXS)

Guest

Jon Gertner

Writer for @NYTmag on science/innovation. Author, "The Idea Factory" and "The Ice at the End of the World.” Next book on NASA Voyager and longterm projects.

What is The CS Primer Show?

A show about computer science and computer science education by Charlie Harrington and Oz Nova.