I’m blogging live via Wi-Fi here from the MIT Emerging Technologies Conference on MIT’s campus in Cambridge, Mass. Nathan Myhrvold kicked off the conference here Wednesday morning by stressing the importance of research and, ultimately, invention. Myhrvold, a former Microsoftie who founded Intellectual Ventures and now serves as its managing director, said that unfortunately the research done by major corporations has waned during the last two decades. He cited once-influential research operations, such as Xerox PARC, IBM’s Wat-son Labs, and AT&T’s Bell Labs, as places where research for its own sake is not done as it once was. “IBM makes $1 billion in patent licensing and $1 billion in technology every year. So the rational thing to do if you’re running IBM is shut the rest of it down and just run research,” Myrhvold quipped. A radical viewpoint, indeed. Then again, Myhrvold’s whole point was that re-search and invention are about overcoming what is considered impossible. “People are enormously constrained by what they think is impossible,” he said. But if more companies ran large-scale research programs, it would be a boon to the industry, he said, pointing to Cisco and Intel, as prime examples of companies that should spend more on research. Bob Metcalfe chimed in that the Bell Labs was run by a telephone monopoly, Xerox Parc by a copier monopoly, and Watson Labs by a computer monopoly. “It’s as if you can only afford to do research if you’re a monopoly,” Metcalfe said. Myhrvold retorted that is exactly why Cisco and Intel should be investing more in research. Later today there are panels on emerging technologies, wireless networks and a talk by Michael Dell, so I’ll post accordingly. Technology Industry