Over the Weekend Assignment - Memex

          The concepts of technology today are so advanced I find it extremely amazing that someone from over 50 years ago was able to relatively accurately predict what we have and can use today.  Vannevar Bush did a remarkable job in his description of what he called the memex, or what we refer to it as today, the World Wide Web.  Another idea Bush wrote about in 1945 that I found to be quite interesting was his idea of someone wearing a camera on their head and then have a clicker from it that runs down to their hand and they are thus able to take pictures of events from their vantage point.  This idea reminded me of the Google Glass video we watched in class.  Google Glass encompasses a camera you wear on your glasses allowing you to take pictures easily from the perspective of the way you see things.  Although the idea Bush had was a little more bulky and not as natural, the same kind of idea applies to Google Glass.  After someone takes those pictures with their Google Glass, they can then upload them to a place where people can share their ideas with anyone and everyone.  That place where ideas can be shared is the memex or the World Wide Web.  After reading through all of Bush’s ideas and the symposium on Bush’s ideas, I went to the web to learn more about the memex. 

            On the internet I found a video produced by a group from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who demonstrated the modern day memex.  In the video they showed how students would be able to take sections from readings and mold them together in a library of their own just as Bush described would be possible.  They would be able to then share those readings and notes they had selected and put together with other classmates or anyone at all who would want to see them.  As I was watching the video I thought how all of these functions were simple everyday occurrences.  Nothing seemed to jump out and take me by surprise as if it was some amazing piece of technology.  My mellow reaction to the video made me think of how much we take for granted the World Wide Web.  We use it for so many different things, such as research, communication, storage, etc.  It makes me think about how different our lives would be if we did not have the constant flow of information right at our fingertips.  I don’t think Bush was able to imagine how much the concept he is famous for has changed the way human beings go about in their everyday lives.  The ability to share such copious amounts information has changed our society in a drastic manor.  Whether that effect is positive or negative is something that I believe is still up for debate.              

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm4UNtR0WfI