OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20230

December 5, 1966

 

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
c/o THE WASHINGTON POST
Washington, D. C.

Dear Dr. Lederberg:

Your column of December 4 leads me to believe that you #
would be interested in several activities of this office.

First, I enclose a release and report recently issued
by a panel on telecommunications which agrees with your own
point about the inadequacies of existing voice transmission.
This report looks at the broader problem of spectrum utili-
zation, with the social implications and public policy
aspects. The fact that the individual may not be able to
hear clearly when conducting a long-distance conversation is
but a small manifestation of the broad problem.

Second, I enclose the report of The President's Commission
on the Patent System. A forthcoming report on invention and
innovation will also be of interest, I believe, in line with
your statement: "With great pain, we may learn how to cope
with single innovations, but we are surely a long way from
dealing effectively with the cumulative process of innovation
and displacement." I will send you that report when it is
available.

Finally, I enclose several recent speeches of Dr.
Hollomon's bearing on these problems.

Sincerely yours,

- "
Cd our f Grrriwt ‘|

Odom Fanning

Special Assistant to the
Assistant Secretary for
Science and Technology

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