As We May ThinkAn essay by Vannevar BushPublished in July 1945(but conceived in 1936!)Vannevar Bush with his Differential Analyzer (1935)Vannevar Bush’s Legacyz Led OSRD during WWII which coupled civilian researchers with armed services.z Helped cement ties between academic science, industry and the military which had been forged during the war.z Recommended the creation of what would eventually become National Science Foundation (NSF).z Scientists should be left to self-organize and self-police. The government should be kept on tap, but not on top.As We May Thinkz Essay conceived in 1936 but put on the shelf during WWIIz Published in 1945z Desire to make all previous collected human knowledge more accessiblez Predicted hypertext, personal computers, the Internet, speech recognition and online encyclopediasThe Memex“A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.”The Memexz A portmanteau of “memory extender”z Theoretical computerz Predicted hypertext and intellect augmenting computer systemsz “[The user] builds a trail of his interest through the maze of materials available to him.”The MemexThe Successors z J.C.R. Licklider{Said computers and people will work together (1960)z Ted Nelson{Sought a computer network with a simple user interface (1960); published Computer Lib/Dream Machines in 1974z Douglas Engelbart{Helped develop the computer mouse, hypertext, etc. (1968)As We May Think in Actionz “Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear”{Wikipediaz “A trail of interest through the maze of materials”{Amazon (Clickstreams)z “Any item can be joined into numerous trails”{Flickr (tagging)z “Selection by association rather than indexing”{Google (See: Anatomy of a Large-Scale HypertextualWeb Search Engine)As We May Think in Actionz “As [the user] has several projection positions, he can leave one item in position while he calls up another”{Firefox (tabbed browsing)z “A lever runs through [material] at will, stopping at interesting items, going off on side excursions”{MySpace, Facebook (social networking)As We May Think in Actionz “The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it.”{Mobile computing/cell phonesz “Excursions may be more enjoyable if [man] can reacquire the privilege of forgetting the manifold things he does not need to have immediately at hand, with some assurance that he can find them again if they prove important.As *Computers* May Thinkz Web 2.0 Name Generator{http://www.lightsphere.com/dev/web20.htmlz Scientific Paper Generator{http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/z Band Name Generator{http://www.elsewhere.org/bandnamez Always Amusing Euphemism Generator{http://walkingdead.net/perl/euphemismz Advertising Slogan
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