For our weekend
assignment, we were asked to read about Vannevar Bush’s “Memex.” The first
article I read was “As We May Think,” which introduced Bush’s vision of a
“mechanized private file and library” that would organize and exceed the
workings of the human mind. He refers to this machine, or “piece of furniture,”
as the “Memex.” Bush recognized the vast potential of the human mind and felt
that the knowledge and discoveries of the world could be easily lost as people
live and die out. He envisioned a machine that would harness the knowledge of
the world, and solidify its existence for future generations. I find it
unbelievable that he was able to predict such a thing, especially because in
the article he talks about how all of our knowledge stems from the experiences
and things around us. He says that everything we know is an accumulation of all
social, political, economic, and personal interactions we have encountered.
In his follow up
article, “Memex Revisited,” Bush recognizes the digital computer and other
devices that had come to life since his first article. He talks about how the
invention of these technologies had successfully heightened the feasibility of
automation, but then claims that costs would delay its achievements.
This idea relates to his first article, “As We May Think,” when Bush says that
funding is one of the greatest barriers between an inventor and his invention. I
then went on to read the article containing the reactions of well-known
pioneers and felt happy that such elite figures were giving Bush the credit he
deserved.
Finally, I performed a Google search on reactions to Vannevar
Bush’s proposition of the “Memex.” The readings I found seemed to be summaries
of his articles and did not offer any new substance on the topic. I then looked
for YouTube videos on the “Memex” and found that they were also summarizing the
thoughts of Bush. Finally, I looked at Google images and found a simple picture
that spoke to me. The picture posted below represents the diagrams of what the
“Memex” was to look like. However, the person who photo shopped this image
added a comical twist on the subject.
The title of the photo is “Memex: Order Yours Today!” There
is also a picture of Rick Astley on the desk. The image depicts each component that
was to make up the “Memex” and its function. It describes each role that Bush
proposes the technology entail. I felt that this representation of the
invention was relatable and accurate because it takes this easily replicable,
unfamiliar technology and makes it somewhat personal. This relation mirrors
Bush’s idea of every person possessing their own “Memex” and transferring their
personal ideas and data into this database. The image seems like an advertisement
for a product, which is what Bush envisioned the “Memex” of becoming.
1 comment:
I found your review very interesting. In particular, the picture you found describing the memex as a product is more fascinating than an article, in my opinion. I think it is interesting to reflect about the thought that the memex as originally imagined seems to be represented today by the computer AND the World Wide Web combined. This makes me wonder if the World Wide Web will become more of a product in the sense that we may have to pay for bandwidth in the future.
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