"Memex" Over the Weekend

For this weeks assignment, I searched on youtube “Memex” and came across a video called, “Memex Animation- Vannevar Bush’s Diagrams made real.” Bush first had the idea of the Memex published in his 1945 article. He envisioned a giant, desk-like, box that has all of ones records, information and books. It is functioned through the use of many levers and buttons. He then explains the process of research the memex has, “bows and arrows.” This invention was truly revolutionary because of its timing and complexity. It was before the Internet and Bush wanted to bring together our brains with some sort of mechanical technology. Bush then revisted his idea of the Memex 20 years later in a new article. He mentioned changes he would make, and I thought the most interesting one was the idea of compression. He said he would use magnetic tapes instead to store information. However, from only reading about the Memex I had a very tough time understanding how it would work or look like so I decided to try and The video showed all the different features of the Memex and what it would look like. It really explained how someone would go about using the machine and what capabilities it had. It also showed the level of personalization that was possible with the Memex from giving someone your trail or writing notes with the stylus on the different parts of your trail. I also thought the keyboard was a great addition to enter codes, project certain documents and to resurface past trails. Although the video was very helpful in understanding the functions of the Memex, it was an old video that was fairly tough to follow. They should had given the descriptions and functions of the different parts at the beginning of the video, so the viewer could know what was going on as it did. I had to watch the video three times to really understand the different parts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c539cK58ees