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Sixty Years of Memex

Posted by timothy on from the I-can't-remember-that-far dept.

CubicStar writes "Sixty years ago, Vannnevar Bush published on 'Atlantic Monthly' his seminal article on the Memex, that computer-like device which would provide access to a huge amount of interlinked information. At the time computers were experimental and secret but a visionary (with a shadowy edge) proposed something which even today looks at least influential."

5 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. This guy was a serious visionary by RayDude · · Score: 3, Interesting

    He predicted talking to machines in 1945. We still ain't there yet. Well, call a baby bell and we're almost there, ALMOST.

    I didn't have time to give the article a full read, but this guy was way, way ahead of his time. He wanted to find ways to store our knowledge. He wanted a scientist to be able to record his words onto paper medium via some devices which had been demonstrated at the world's fair. He even predicted using radio to report from the field and record in his lab.

    I suspect he would appreciate our hard drives, computers, and iPods... Heh.

    I look forward to reading the rest later.

    Raydude

  2. It influenced Doug Engelbart... by Traf-O-Data-Hater · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...who read the article at the end of WWII whilst stationed in the Philippines http://www.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0035.html

  3. what about Doug Engelbart?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    (assuming anyone bothers to mod this AC post)

    Doug Engelbart is that guy who invented the mouse, and worked with Alan Kay at Xerox PARC on the subject of using computers to augment human communication and cognition.

    http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/engelbart/

    Engelbart was largely influenced by Vannevar Bush's 'As We May Think'.

    Of course, if you're a *real* computer scientist, this is all old hat to you!

  4. Re:Interesting article. by maxpublic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    we simply add more and more stimuli to fill in the brain capacity that is no longer required for those tasks simplified by databases and search engines.

    Perhaps for those under 40, or who don't have children. Old age and rug rats quickly make the quiet life quite appealing, and the ability to throw out unneeded stimuli as good as gold.

    Max

    --
    My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
  5. I want timetravel by FLAGGR · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wish I could go back in time, get a guy like this, sit him down in front of my apple computer, hooked up to a 23" moniter, wireless keyboard and mouse, show him all the drop shadows in osx, open and save some files, and reopen them, to show him it remembered what I wrote. Play some FPS online and call people n00b's over the microphone, load up some solar system simulator, draw a picture in gimp, print it on my photoprinter/copier/scanner, and then let him play with it. Show him instant messaging, then open Firefox and show him the web (not goatse, we need to go slowly, lets say wikipedia)

    After that, I would open up the mac mini, and let him wonder where everthing is stored, how the little hunk of plastic and metal can make that tv its hooked up to do all those things.

    Then, I would take him to the hospital for his heartattack.