ICM 501:Response Paper #1
Imagine. That is half the battle. The beauty of perpetuating thought! Many times our thoughts get the best of us, sending us on long journeys through a labyrinth of options for what can become a reality. Realizing that not every thought is sound in function and form, is admitting that there is room for imperfections and space for growth. Though many may squabble against the relevancy of the message Vannevar Bush (1945) was trying to express in his piece “As We May Think” (1945), it was still merely a thought.
This piece was published in the Atlantic Monthly the year 1945, a time in history best known for the end of World War II. Vannevar Bush (1945), Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, recognized for his orchestration of American Scientists in the battle of using science as a means to warfare (1945), conveyed his theory of where scientists aught to flex their muscle.
“Science”(pg.1), according to Bush, “ has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual” (pg.1). For knowledge to cultivate beyond the present measures available in 1945, it was Bush’s (1945) belief that a system of organized information needed to exist that was not only easily accessible but specialized (1945).
The mere thought of a collection of works, all relative to one another, was an astonishing yet profound ‘thought’ for the early information age. To fathom an idea such as this, so early on in the development of information technology, not only was logical but exciting. Bush (1945) acknowledged the need for a new method of research claiming,
Professionally our methods of transmitting and reviewing the results of research are generations old and by now are totally inadequate for their purpose” (Bush, 1945, pg.1)
Through this perspective, Bush (1945) already had evidence that technology was, at that time, a gateway for future progress:
Certainly progress in photography is not going to stop. Faster material and lenses, more automatic cameras, finer-grained sensitive compounds to allow an extension of the mini-camera idea, are all imminent. (Bush, 1945, pg.2)
Using the camera as an example to further explain his purpose, Bush (1945) conjures up possible directions technology could lead the camera. Predicting a tiny camera worn on the forehead of the user, the size of a walnut, with a cord that runs along the arm extending to the hand where a switch or push button trips the shutter enabling him to record images that can later be enlarged ( Bush, 1945). Through the path of his imagination, Bush stumbles upon, what to him was just an idea, and what has become reality to the modern technological world; the digital camera.
The proof in the pudding you say? Let’s cite some more facts.
This was not just a tiny camera that sits on your forehead with some fancy “James Bond” type trip wire, but “The lense is of universal focus, down to any distance accommodated by the unaided eye, simply because it is of short focal length. There is a built-in photocell on the walnut such as we now have on at least one camera, which automatically adjusts exposure for a wide range of illumination. There is film in the walnut for a hundred exposures, and the spring for operating its shutter and shifting its film would once for all when the film clip is inserted. It produces its results in full color” (Bush, 1945, pg. 2)
Understanding that at this time in history, there was no preconceived knowledge of what ‘digital’ was or what role it was to play in the future; while also accepting the fact that Bush (1945) did not predict the ‘tiny camera’ in the fashion that we have come to know it as today; does not disprove what he was describing is the foundation of what was to become and now is the evolution of the camera.
Not to shabby for 1945. Remarkably this was not the most impressive aspect of his article. The real clincher (getting back to organized information) was Bush’s (1945) idea of the “memex” (pg.6) Once again, imagine, a compression of all the world’s data and facts, an information warehouse, where the user can gather research on any area of interest with the stroke of the keyboard.
Beyond encouraging scientific development among his peers to bridge the gap between research and the thinking of man, Bush (1945), unbeknownst to him, had ‘imagined’ the basis to what we have come to know as the Internet.
Describing the “memex” (Bush, 1945, pg.6), as 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” (Bush, 1945, pg. 6)
The “memex” (pg.6) was a desk with ‘slanted translucent screens’ (Bush, 1945, pg. 6) that would project the information for easy reading (1945). While only one end is set aside for storage, the rest is ‘devoted to mechanism.’ (pg. 6) Inside the “memex’ (pg.6) were loads of ‘microfilm’ ready for access. The microfilm contained, “…books of all sorts, pictures, current periodicals, newspapers” (Bush, 1945, pg. 6)
Bush (1945) claimed that it could store ‘material freely’, since microfilm was so thin. The device also had a copying function that introduced the use of ‘dry ink photography’ to enable information to be transferred from the “memex” (pg.6) to paper. In edition to the plethora of obtainable information, another relevant function to the modern day computer / Internet is that of indexing. The “memex” (pg. 6) allowed its user to store bookmarks, or go back points, in his research to allow for quick access at a later date.
A phenomenal idea for the times it was indeed. Unimaginable that something relatively close would emerge some thirty to forty years later. Taking into consideration, that to modern society, a contraption such as the “memex” might seem like a complex way of accessing information, but then again, try explaining how the Internet works to Vannevar Bush (1945).
References
Bush, Vennavar. “As We May Think”. The Atlantic Monthly 1945.
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