For this week’s online assignment I read Bush’s article As We May Think. The article discussed
the “relationship between the thinking man and the sum of our knowledge.” In
summary, he calls for extensive organization in these new and broad sets of
knowledge that would make it more accessible and easier to obtain and acquire. He
was concerned with the path of scientific efforts toward destruction (with
information overload and automation) rather than understanding. His solution
was a collective memory machine, essentially what would be similar to the Internet
that would make knowledge more accessible and fix these problems. This machine
was later deemed the “Memex.”
Next, I read the “Bush Symposium” published in 1995, which
talks about how the innovation would take place in modern society. It’s
interesting to note that this was around the time the “World Wide Web” or
“Internet” was launched. This phenomenon encompassed Bush’s “Memex” ideas in
organizing memory and data into one huge online database. “Wholly new forms of
encyclopedias will appear ready-made with a mesh of associative trails running
through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified…”
(Bush) He was right, the Internet allows
for millions and billions of facts and ideas to be searched and discovered on
one easy to use database.
I then used Google to expand my knowledge of the Memex. I
stumbled upon a YouTube video, much like the Apple Knowledge Navigator one we
saw in class last week. It displayed a clunky almost printer looking machine
that searched for different articles pertaining to what the subject had typed
into the machine. In this case the person was looking for articles relating to
a “bow and arrow” and the machine scanned and sifted through its memory to generate
one paper about a bow and arrow. The person can then edit it with his/her
comments and it remains there for the duration of the paper. It kind of reminds
me of an outdated version of a smart board. It was cool to see how it was
supposed to be operated and how it has the same blueprints as the modern day
“World Wide Web.”
2 comments:
This video is very interesting! The sound effects (although very outdated) remind me of old computer games I used to own as a kid. The simplicity that is connected with the portrayal of the Memex also reminds me of the Apple Knowledge Navigator as you mentioned. This is a cool addition to the knowledge we gained from all the readings about the Memex. Seeing something rather than reading about it is always a help when trying to understand a new idea!
Erin that video is awesome! Its cool to be able to visualize what the Memex looks like after reading so much about it. The Memex clearly had very similar ideas to the personal computer today and its cool to visualize how Bush contributed to our society.
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