alt.hn

7/18/2026 at 1:47:49 AM

Recreating the Bell Labs Cafeteria

 https://danielmiessler.com/blog/recreating-the-bell-labs-cafeteria

by walterbell

7/21/2026 at 8:02:23 PM

Somewhat ironically given the relationship drawn, my understanding is that Claude Shannon spent relatively little time at the Bell Labs Murray Hill campus, instead living in the more intellectually-stimulating environment of New York City.

Though he apparently did spend enough time at Murray Hill to meet his wife, Mary Elizabeth Moore ("Betty") Shannon.

<https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/voices/betty-shannon...>

by dredmorbius

7/21/2026 at 7:27:44 PM

You know, the funny thing is every technically minded friend if mine would apend the evening communing with a scotch and Claude if time permitted.

There was even a depressing conversation where we all figured most people are signficantly more boring to talk to than an LLM. Its fantastic if you have the luck to be surrounded by interesting people, but that is an extreme luxury i suspect.

by a34729t

7/21/2026 at 7:39:06 PM

It sounds like you and I share the author’s view that, for all its sparkle, Claude is a thin substitute for the company of interesting people.

What might it look like to lower the barriers to that kind of situation, to extend that extreme luxury to more people—ideally to anybody who decides they’d rather lead interesting lives-of-the-mind themselves?

(Related:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48959090 [3 days ago / 469 / 212] )

by alwa

7/21/2026 at 7:48:52 PM

Neal Stephenson had a book about that!

by a34729t

7/21/2026 at 8:53:15 PM

Sorry to say but it points more to a lack of conversational skills in you than people being less exciting than Claude.

It's not always socially permissible but I often approach others with the mindset 1) Is this person far more knowledgeable in some topic than I, or 2) Let's find an unusual quirk about them that I never would have expected. And it rarely disappoints.

by 0x000xca0xfe

7/21/2026 at 7:24:21 PM

Bell was a goldmine of technological discoveries. Academia as well.

Now it's all be sold off to ensure next quarter's numbers are up so the execs get their bonuses.

by pstuart

7/21/2026 at 8:13:32 PM

Short-termism has been undermining the US for a long while now.

by quantum_state

7/18/2026 at 3:17:43 AM

the dream!

by adm4

7/21/2026 at 7:30:03 PM

[flagged]

by badc0ffee

7/21/2026 at 7:35:06 PM

Please link the RFC that differentiates the two. And thank you for your service.

by danielrm26