Vanavar Bush, an American engineer and inventor, envisioned a device in 1945 called the ‘Memex’ capable of storing and retrieving vast amounts of information, similar to the internet of today. Bush’s Memex, short for “memory extender”, was a hypothetical device, a desk-like machine, that would enable people to swiftly navigate and organise information.
Bush imagined a world where people could access a wealth of information at their fingertips and draw connections between different pieces of data. This vision was instrumental in inspiring the creation of the internet and personal computing.
Despite the Memex never being physically realised, its concept has been widely influential. Some argue that Bush’s vision has been realised through the World Wide Web and others believe it to be an ongoing quest in the field of technology.
In recent times, there’s been an increased interest in creating a ‘proto-Memex’, a physical device that embodies Bush’s vision. While the exact form and functionality of such a device are still up for debate, the pursuit of the proto-Memex signifies the enduring relevance of Bush’s vision in the digital age.
Go to source article: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/in-search-of-the-proto-memex/371385/