Analysing Vannevar Bush's Vision

T171 End of Course Assessment Lois Ann Morris PI: T8318286 5th October 2001.

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Exercise from Module 3

Module Three - Segment 5 - Exercise 6: Analysing Vannevar Bush’s vision.
"Download the article ‘As We May Think' written by Dr. Vannevar Bush in July 1945 and create a succinct structured summary of it in the form of a web page."

Introduction	Section 1	Section 2
Section 3	Section 4	Section 5
Section 6	Section 7	Section 8

Introduction
Writing this article at the end of the Second World War, Bush reflects on the changes it has brought to the world of scientists. He considers the question “Now, as peace approaches, one asks where they will find objectives worthy of their best”.
Dr. Vannevar Bush Section 1
Bush reviews the benefits that science has brought to mankind, particularly the increased control over his material environment and much swifter communication. He speculates that the human race is becoming increasingly bogged down by an ever-growing quantity of information. Methods used to exchange and evaluate data are now totally inadequate for the amount being generated. Scientists are no longer able to keep abreast of new developments and valuable ideas are being “lost in the mass of the inconsequential”.
Section 2
Bush speculates at length about technologies which were quite new at the end of the War and considers how they might be used in the future to enhance scientific record-keeping.“A record, if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted”. He suggests that compression will play an important part in making research widely accessible. The question of cost is also considered - cheap reproduction on a huge scale would make the material easily available to all interested parties.
Section 3
Bush considers the limitations of physical methods of recording. He speculates on machines being developed in the future for computation which will be much faster and more versatile in their uses, observing “There will always be plenty of things to compute in the detailed affairs of millions of people doing complicated things”.
Section 4
Bush envisages such machines releasing the scientist of the future from mundane manipulation of data, freeing him to apply his skills and intuition to solving advanced problems.
Section 5
Bush now arrives at an important conclusion from the preceding sections “Thus far we seem to be worse off than before - for we can enormously extend the record; yet even in its present bulk we can hardly consult it.” The difficulty of accessing and absorbing such a huge amount of ever-increasing information, even in a specialized field, is beyond the capabilities of any one scientist or scholar.
Section 6
Bush’s criticises the artificiality of indexing systems, suggesting that alphabetical or numerical filing of data is both slow and counter-productive “Having found one item, moreover, one has to emerge from the system and re-enter on a new path”. Bush points out that the human mind operates by association of thoughts which he calls an “intricate web of trails”. There are disadvantages in using the human mind such as the transitory nature of memory, its impermanence and the inevitable fading of infrequently-followed trails but he still describes it as “awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature”. A benefit of mechanising record-keeping would be to ensure relative permanency and clarity of stored data.
He offers his concept of a “Memex” which he describes as a mechanised private file and library in the form of a desk. Bush foresees it enabling the individual to access his personal records swiftly, flexibly and accurately. He describes the Memex in some detail - it bears a striking similarity to today's personal computer.
Section 7
Bush considers the single most important feature of the memex. It will provide “associative indexing, the basic idea of which is a provision whereby any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another. This is the essential feature of the memex. The process of tying two items together is the important thing”. He envisages the user gathering items from various sources and linking them together in a new document ‘trail’ which can itself be joined to other ‘trails’. Trails will not fade and can be easily referenced in the future.
Section 8
Bush believes there will be “a new profession of trailblazers” devoted to exploring the “enormous mass of the common record” and creating useful trails from it. He believes that science will find new ways in which man can produce, store and navigate the vast quantities of data that he will inevitably create in the future.
Even more radically, Bush suggests that direct use will be made of the human senses of touch, speech, hearing and sight. He envisages the electrical impulses conveyed from the brain to control these human senses being fed directly into the mechanism to create records. “It is a suggestive thought”, he admits, “but it hardly warrants prediction without losing touch with reality and immediateness”.
Bush finishes on a philosophical note, musing that science will enable man to “better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems”. It will be necessary to forget less important details and concentrate on the major questions - confident in the knowledge that all data will be easily accessible in the future. Bush feels that science now offers man the ability to control his destiny and hopes that this chance will not be missed.

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