After reading the required readings on Bush's Memex, I was honestly shocked. Not shocked by his stream of thought, but rather that I've never heard of Vannevar Bush and his "Memex." At such an early stage of technological development, the only word to describe Bush's Memex is brilliant. I'm sure there were tons of people who had similar ideas to Bush, but no one was able to introduce such futuristic ideas in an organized fashion. No one was able to put it all together into one grand idea. Bush had grounded thoughts about a device that would have the ability to store all of your information- such as, books, records, and communications. Having to remember and store all of your information without technology is a very difficult task. Everyone has important information that they would like to hold onto forever and possibly pass onto or communicate to friends and family members, and Bush envisioned the perfect way to do so in a safe and secure manner. Following Bush's thought process, the Memex would be the perfect supplement to one's memory.
Michael Fraase, author and blogger, summarizes and provides insight on Bush's Memex. In his article The Lost Manuscripts, Fraase explains how Bush's ideas are still very much alive and intact today. He explains how although the personal computer or laptop is a technological step-up from Bush's Memex, many of his ideas were used in the development of the computer. Fraase believes that Bush's original idea of navigational trials and associative links are still very much alive in hypertext and hypermedia today, and that the only thing that has drastically changed is the media itself. Bush's idea of microfilm technology is the same idea as electronic storage, but due to a major boost in technological development, electronic storage is faster and less complicated. When looking at Bush's Memex in this era, Fraase implies that people wouldn't consider it impressive due to the inevitable growing rate of hyper literate people. I believe that people who think that way are judgmental and unaware of how advanced life is now, compared to what Bush had to deal with. I completely agree with Fraase in that Bush's ideas of associated links and a storage index make up the basic ideas of a personal computer with internet. I'm really happy I learned about Bush's contributions and hope that people realize how relevant his ideas are to the world today.
http://www.farces.com/the-lost-manuscripts-commentary-on-bushs-memex/
1 comment:
I totally agree with your ideas! I had also never heard of the "Memex", so it was really interesting to read about it and hear Bush's ideas. I think that you had a really good point of saying that Bush's thoughts about the future of technology were "grounded". This is an important part of his ideas, in my opinion, because he wasn't overshooting what the future would look like. He used his logical mind to really think about what problems humanity had in his time, like an overload of information and books with no where to store it all, and created a solution to it.
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