Shockley and team did win the Nobel Prize so I think they are the true inventors who produced a working model. His political views with standing.
Good thing many more people didn't think the way you do, or no body would have listened to him, and we would never have had the transistor. You are being emotional and illogical...you are guilty of the same thing that Shockley was...an appeal against a man...some call it prejudice.
I suspect your conclusion is correct, however, there have been many times in the history of science and technology that the true inventors have been overlooked. I believe Tesla was a good example. But now he has a car named after him!
We would have had the transistor, and since we don't know the gritty details; we have no idea if we would have had it sooner or later without him.
Although the inventor of Transistor, I am more impressed that Shockley started Silicon valley, that is an accomplishment! About racism....Remove this from the equation, as there is at present in today's elites with plenty. Listen someday to the rap music, it is awful. It is in all direction. But many greats in all aspects had their issues...Like Henry Ford, with anti Semitic. On a side note, the name of owners of the bank that loaned the funds to Henry Ford were "Dodge Brothers" and this started the other car company! I can go on and on....Silicon Valley and all the companies there owe a thank you to Shockley. About his personal views, yes it is awful, but so are so many greats and elites with not the most honorable points of view..and many flawed morals, values, and principles, but talented and gifted that changes the world..
Like Hollywood celebrities? NN2Z: "About racism....Remove this from the equation, as there is at present in today's elites with plenty. Listen someday to the rap music, it is awful. It is in all direction." K8GMA: "Good thing many more people didn't think the way you do, or no body would have listened to him, and we would never have had the transistor. You are being emotional and illogical...you are guilty of the same thing that Shockley was...an appeal against a man...some call it prejudice." Yep, makes you wonder which or who is more racist. Phil
Shockley was indeed a genius, albeit a very personally flawed one. His pro-eugenics views so alienated a number of his employees that a lot of them ended up quitting. Fairchild Semiconductor was founded by about 4 or 5 of Shockley's top engineers, who had gotten fed up with Shockley's nonstop ranting about white supremacy, and who quit as a single group. For some reason, Shockley couldn't figure out why his top people kept bailing out, and his business eventually folded because nobody in Silicon Valley was willing to work for him. After that, Shockley went on the road for a while to promote his ideas, which didn't work out because nobody wanted to listen to him. Geniuses often seem to come with some really bizarre views on societal organization. The inventor of the disposable razor blade, King Gillette, was a really wacko socialist who once tried to get Teddy Roosevelt to head a company Gillette tried to set up to be the world's sole employer. Gillette also wrote books on his ideas which by all accounts were totally incomprehensible. Henry Ford was cuckoo for Nazism to the point that it nearly sank Ford Motor Company.
According to Crystal Fire by Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson, W. W. Norton and Co., 1997, many of his team left because they wanted to go with higher amounts of transistor device integration on a single substrate, whereas Shockley wanted to continue research and development in exotic diodes. I.E., The others saw more value in higher device integration (the IC) than did Shockley. In addition, his persistent and dogged personality did not fit well with the other team members, who insisted patents should carry the names of all team members involved, and not just the name of the team leader. Phil
Yes indeed the great Tesla does not get enough credit!! Even Einstein said he was more intelligent (Tesla!). Died of a heart attack and broke...to bad...Well, we can thank him for the AC! (Alternating Current). And many more! (
Obviously my educated opinion on this matter is not unique: WD0BCT experienced this racism nonsense of Shockley's first hand. Your statement is false. Your 'emotion' assertion is not based on fact. I am not in any way speaking from emotion; go look up and read Shockley's discourses on race. Shockley was a racist: this was apparent in his discourses long after invention of the transistor. Not before. (What was later to be called) 'Silicon Valley' was started by Villard and Terman, to break the patent monopoly of RCA. Thus another fact that should not get lost in the mix. I see no basis to emulate nor venerate someone who was so fatally flawed as Shockley... that is my educated opinion (and if you think IQ is important, mine is a paltry 152) and not some emotional nor illogical confabulation. 73 Chip W1YW
Here is one of many Shockley quotes--publicly available--evincing his racism: My research leads me inescapably to the opinion that the major cause of the American Negro's intellectual and social deficits is hereditary and racially genetic in origin and, thus, not remediable to a major degree by practical improvements in the environment. Notice Shockley totally discounts absence of opportunity and suppression as driving factors... Really: why are we holding this guy up as a role model on QRZed?? I am hardly being illogical nor emotional. And, BTW, I am hardly a liberal. Shockley was racist. Period. 73 Chip W1YW
Why is everything so binary to some here? Sue got it right. We should be able to (and free to) appreciate the technical contributions Shockley made while at the same time firmly rejecting his appalling racism. He was not the first, nor the last talented technical person to start with a false premise or prejudice, then pursue it logically and doggedly to absurd and harmful conclusions.
The key with Ford, is he got his loans from a bank that were Jewish. They were charging Ford 22% interest....Ford gave his business to his son, knowing he would fail, and Ford bought back the company on a nickle on the dollar...The Bankers hired Ford's best Engineers...The Banker name was the "Dodge Brothers"...And there you go, another company was started!
So if Henry Ford and Bill Shockley got together and had a baby.......... Would the baby hate both blacks and jews??
