As We May Think
Boston, Massachusetts: The Atlantic Monthly Company 1945. First Edition. [1]-129,[5] pages. Entire issued offered, The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 176, No. 1. Small 4to. (7 3/4 x 10 5/8 inches) A worn copy with front cover detaching from spine top half (associated closed tear and crease upper left), overall rubbing. Spine panel is brittle with old taped label and several small areas of paper loss. Usual creases near the spine on the front and rear covers. Internally clean and bright. The subscriber edition (there was also a newstand edition). Good. Wrappers. [27560]
Vannevar Bush's article in this volume, 'As We May Think' (found on pages 101-108) is important in the history of computing as it anticipates hypertext, the internet, and online encyclopedias.
'Bush's article describes his proposed Memex system for organizing, storing, retrieving, and linking information. Inspired by microfilm technology-which in 1945 represented the most advanced means of storing large amounts of information-Bush conceived of the Memex as consisting of a desk equipped with projection screens, buttons and levers, a keyboard, and a storage system designed to provide instant access to microfilmed books, periodicals, documents, photographs, etc. The Memex system would allow pieces of data to be linked into permanent 'information trails' dictated by the individual user's needs, which could be called up again and modified at any future date...Only after the development of the personal computer and hyperlinks on the World Wide Web was Bush's paper resurrected as a remarkably early expression of ideas that were eventually realized in a different way on the Internet.(Origins of Cyberspace 519).
The article is remarkably clairvoyant about the world we live in today hyperlinks, Google, even Wikipedia are all examples of the mechanical world implemented in software via the internet today. A very important paper, so much so that there was a research symposium held at MIT with pioneers such as Tim Berners-Lee and Nicholas Negroponte speaking about this article's impact on their lives and work.
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