Negative Space: memex
- Our Cybernetic Future 1945: As We May Blog
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As we go back in time for insight into the future, actual hardware recedes and the relationship between man and hardware comes to the fore. In 1945, Vannevar Bush laid out a vision of the Internet and desktop computers filled with the knowledge of mankind. And he recognized that this would not merely change how quickly we think, but how we think.
More Information
- Vannevar Bush: The Memex
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“In 1945, Bush authored the article ‘As We May Think’ in the Atlantic Monthly in which he first proposed his idea of the Memex machine. This machine was designed to help people sort through the enormous amount of published information available throughout the world… The machine would augment human memory by allowing the user to make links, or ‘associative trails,’ between documents. Bush… introduced the terms ‘links,’ ‘linkages,’ ‘trails,’ and ‘Web’ through his descriptions of a new type of textuality. Bush’s article greatly influenced the creators of what we know as ‘hypertext’ and how we use the Internet today.”
