As We May Think
By Vannevar Bush
July 1945
Presented by
Steve Hookway
9/6/05
Too Much Information

Then



“..there is increased evidence that we are being
bogged down today as specialization extends”
“publication has extended far beyond our present
ability to make real use of the record”
Now

In July 2000 more than 2 billion pages[1]


1.
2.
4 billion estimated in 2001[1]
In 2002 over 9,040,000 Web Sites[2]
Sizing the Internet, Cyveillance White Paper Prepared by Brian H. Murray, Cyveillance,
Inc.
OCLC: Online Computer Library Center
Creating a Record:
Photography

Then




Faster, dry development
Smaller cameras
Reduce the size of the image without loss of
quality - microfilm
Now



Polaroid Cameras
Digital Cameras
Electronic imaging a vast improvement over
microfilm[1,2]
1. DocFinity: http://www.docfinity.com/
2. Captiva: http://www.captivasoftware.com/index.asp
Creating a Record:
Written

Then





Synthesize speech – Voder
Record speech – Vocoder, Stenotype
Early voice recognition
Early character recognition - adding
Now


1.
2.
Voice and Text Recognition Software[1]
Philips 9450 VC Pocket Memo[2]
ART: Speech and Handwriting Interfaces for Mobil Devices
Phillips: 9450 VC Pocket Memo
Advanced Mathematics

Then



Some machines to solve differential and integral
equations
Predicted a machine able to reason with
mathematical data
Now


Handheld calculators to solve differential and
integral equations
IBM’s Blue Gene/Lite capable of 360 teraflops –
trillions of calculations per second used to study
interactions between atmospheric chemistry and
pollution[1]
1. Blue Gene/L
Information Selection

Then

Simple Selection (Card Reader)



Examines each piece in turn
Problems indexing
Now

Existing web search techniques

Content/Link analysis
Information Selection

Then


Conventional Indexing is Inconvenient
The Memex



Large Storage
Easy retrieval
Now


Conventional Indexing Made Easier
The Personal PC

Dell’s Base Model comes with an 80GB hard drive [1]
1. Dell: Dimension Desktops
Associative Indexing

Then



Memex documents linked via code word
and photocell dots
Memex links are easily created and
traversed
Now


HTML anchors link web content together
Able to navigate forwards and backwards
through links (with help of crawler)
Beyond the Memex

Then


Information observed/recorded via
senses (mechanical)
Now


Able to convert thought to
mechanical output [1]
Not so far off from being able to
observe, record, and access
information simply by thinking
about it
1. Monkey controls robotic arm using brain signals sent over the Internet: Elizabeth A.
Thomson, News Office December 6, 2000