"Memex" Over the Weekend- Michelle McGuire

Learning about this technology “the Memex” surprised me because I never thought that the types of technology that have been developed within the past two decades could have been predicted so accurately and so long ago.  In the first article, Vannevar Bush takes us through history and explains the development of many great inventions in the past until he introduces his idea for the future.  I didn’t realize the magnitude of how amazing his ideas were until I looked up the background of that time period that he wrote his article during.  The very earliest computers ever developed were all turning up around this time.

            After reading his second article written about 20 years later, I thought it was very cool that he could say “Now is this all a dream? It certainly was, two decades ago. It is still a dream, but one that is now attainable.”  After reading the second article, I still thought it was impossible that he had predicted future technology so well until I read the Bush Symposium article.  This article helped me realize that he did not merely predict the future, rather he influenced and created it both directly and indirectly.

            Then I did a Google search and found a very interesting video on Youtube called “Linking Minds”.  The two parts to this video supported the idea that he was partly responsible for the invention of the computer with his invention of the .  The Youtube videos (part 1 and part 2) map out how three different technologies came together to form the first modern computer, and the first technology they focus on is the Memex.  I liked how the video formatted its argument.  It introduced Vannevar Bush and described his professional experiences before he developed his idea of the Memex.  When I read the first article, I didn’t know that he was a very influential, powerful person within the technology community in that era.  Because the video provided the information about his time working with the National Defense of the U.S. and working on the Manhattan Project, I then could understand why his idea was taken so seriously and not seen as a crazy, far-fetched idea.  The video simplified how the ideas introduced by Bush have become things we use today on the Web.  When I read the articles about the Memex, his explanation of the “trails” confused me, but the video explained how hyperlinks and linking on the Web works the same way that Bush had imagined on the Memex.  What I appreciated most with this video was how it brought two other technology developers, Ted Nelson and Douglas Englebart, into the picture.  Ted Nelson created the first writing systems that eventually led to the word processors used today.  Then, the video claimed Douglas Englebart was responsible for the breakthrough with the invention of the first mouse prototype.  Overall, I really liked this video because it helped me understand how new technologies, specifically the computer and Web, are a combination of other ideas and inventions.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHGF_BQi1PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPS0xu6qUY8