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The Decline of Unfettered Research, Andrew Odlyzko – Pantaneto Press

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We are going through a period of technological change that is unprecedented in extent and speed. The success of corporations and even nations depends more than ever on rapid adoption of new technologies and operating methods. It is widely acknowledged that science made this transformation possible. At the same time, scientific research is under stress, with pressures to change, to turn away from investigation of fundamental scientific problems, and to focus on short-term projects. The aim of this essay is to discuss the reasons for this paradox, and especially for the decline of unfettered research. What do I mean by unfettered research? In the discussions of federal science policy it has also occasionally been called “curiosity-driven.” It is exemplified by the following reminiscences of Henry Ehrenreich [Ehr]. When I arrived at the General Electric Research Laboratory at the beginning of 1956, fresh from a PhD at Cornell, I was greeted by my supervisor, Leroy Apker, who looked after

Andrew Odlyzko AT&T Bell Laboratories amo@research.att.com Revised Version October 4, 1995 1. Introduction We are going through a period of technological change that is unprecedented in extent and speed. The success of corporations and even nations depends more than ever on rapid adoption of new technologies and operating methods. It is widely acknowledged that science made this transformation possible. At the same time, scientific research is under stress, with pressures to change, to turn away from investigation of fundamental scientific problems, and to focus on short-term projects. The aim

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