The "memex" is truly an intriguing theory. Bush had a good grasp on the way the human brain relates to information. Finding a way to make storing and retrieving information actually useful, was almost too large a step for the time. Even today having the internet, this hard-copy version seems a bit unrealistic. But, who would have thought our cell phones could play music, access our e-mail, and function as a normal cell phone? Not to mention that a large percentage of people have their own personal phone and computer.
There are some definite similarities in functions between the internet of today and the hypothetical memex. Bush came up with methods of scrolling, bookmarking, tagging, and just generic searching, making all the information supremely accessible. He even had short-cut keys.
The idea that one could place all their own personal information on their memex is probably the largest difference. The internet is definitely a place where people can put information out for everybody else, but namely it is a place to access information that someone else has posted. The memex seemed more of a way to store ones' own ideas rather than view someone else's. The general population today, probably knows some basic things about putting information on the web, but the majority just use the search for the things they need on servers like Google.
It would be interesting to see where the internet world would have ended up if the memex had existed. Would we have the internet at all? Would we just have more elaborate versions of the memex? Would the internet be more available to the general population of people, being able to put up information merely by scanning it in?
Who knows...?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Some good thoughts on the article. In the last paragraph you talk about where we would be today if the memex had existed, or if we would even have internet. I think that things would definitely be a bit different if it had existed, or at least our path to where we are today would have been different. But I think that with the concept of networking, the memex would have fairly quickly been pushed out of the way or at least adapted to allow for networking. Connectivity is the big focus in today's world, everyone is plugged in all the time. Internet, phones, tv, ipods with web browsers... the list goes on. what's the next step though? we are already moving to everything wireless, what about deviceless? can that happen?
Ooh, interesting! Deviceless - what a massive step stemming from the memex. I can imagine that things like pet tags being embedded into their bodies instead of hanging around their necks is the next wave of technology - phones inside our ears, sort of a Minority Report existence - all thanks to the theory of the memex.
These are interesting ideas. I never even thought about the parallel between the privacy aspect of the memex and how public the internet is. Maybe if the memex actually existed, it would become an even more personal device, and the internet would be used solely for communicating with others. Over time the memex would probably become pocket-sized and you could have your whole life and all personal research in your pocket! And the internet would become, like what Adam said, "deviceless" and you'd network through some virtual screen that could be projected on any wall.
Post a Comment