As We May Think Response

I think the overlying theme present in the Vannevar Bush article is that we need to continue to use science and technology to create intuitive archives through which past research can be centrally located and accessed. Obviously, at the time this article was published (July, 1945) the internet hadn’t taken form yet. However, one can’t help but to draw similarities between the way Bush describes his vision and today’s internet and personal computing capabilities. The internet basically serves as a visual archive capable of the vast thoroughness Bush wrote of in his essay.

Within the As We May Think article, he wrote, “Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and, to coin one at random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.”

Apparently Bush was a visionary as his memex sure sounds a lot like a laptop or an IPad. He goes on further to describe the type of technology that may still be on the horizon, or may even exist for all I know, when he discusses possible methods of computing/researching/and/or archiving information via a device that intercepts information conveyed to and from the brain, before the information is transmitted and translated through keystrokes executed by our fingertips.

Overall I think Bush was obviously a very intelligent and forward thinking scientist and clearly some of the things he wrote about in 1945 have come to fruition. He makes his points with a sense of urgency and seems to sense being on the cusp of technological breakthroughs that could greatly impact science, research and the pursuit of knowledge. I think his main concern in this article though was not necessarily the immediate future of technology, but the motivation to figure out better ways of archiving current and past research