4. “As We May Think”
July 1945
Seminal article in the
history of computing
Introduces the memex
5. Information Overload
“There is a growing mountain of research.
But there is increased evidence that we are
being bogged down today as specialization
extends. The investigator is staggered by
the findings and conclusions of thousands
of other workers— conclusions which he
cannot find time to grasp, much less to
remember, as they appear...” (1945)
“The difficulty seems to be…that
publication has been extended far beyond
our present ability to make real use of the
record.” (1945)
“We are being buried in our own product.
Tons of printed material are dumped out
every week. Many [ideas] become lost;
many others are repeated over and over.”
(1967)
6. The Memex
“Consider a future device for individual
use, which is a sort of mechanized private
file and library…
A memex is a device in which an individual
stores all his books, records, and
communications, and which is mechanized
so that it may be consulted with exceeding
speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged
intimate supplement to his memory.”
Source: As We May Think, Vannevar Bush, 1945
7. How Much Information?
“…if the user inserted 5000 pages of material a day it
would take him hundreds of years to fill the
repository, so that he can be profligate and enter
material freely”
Source: Vannevar Bush, “As We May Think”, 1945
8. The Memex – Dissected
Touch sensitive
screens for
displaying
information and
adding annotations
Scanner and touch
sensitive screen Current „trail
number‟ display
Stylus
„keypad‟ for entering
Navigation switch trail codes
Memory storage
microfilm, magnetic
tape
9. What Happened to the Memex?
Bush „upgrades‟ the memex in 1959 and 1967
Magnetic tape replaces microfilm
Proposed that crystals will replace magnetic tape
Still analog
Was never built
10. Analyzing The Memex
Why wasn‟t it ever built?
What was its impact on future developments?
Why is it important?
11. Why Wasn’t The Memex Ever Built?
According to Bush:
It would have been „enormously expensive‟ to build
It was an idea before its time
Creating associations between was not well understood
Public didn‟t understand the value of the project
Others:
Device was too ambiguous; no good definition
No practical way to create associations
Associations aren‟t the best way to link information
Technologies were not ripe for use; e.g. info retrieval
Sources: Bush, V., Memex Revisited, 1959, and Memex II, 1967.
12. Or Was It?
Microsoft MyLifeBits
Import files
GPS import & MyLifeBits
Map display Shell
VIBE
Text
logging
SenseCam annotation
tool
Voice
annotation
Screen saver tool
MyLifeBits
Internet
store
Browser
Radio tool
capture Legacy
& EPG applications
database
IM capture
files MAPI
interface
PocketPC
transfer
tool Outlook
TV capture interface
tool Legacy
Telephone email client
PocketRadio capture tool
player TV EPG
download tool
14. Did the Memex Impact Future
Developments?
# of articles/books that mention ‘memex’
meaningfully
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
Source: Smith, Linda C. “Memex as an Image of Potentiality in Information Retrieval Research and
Development, SIGIR '80: Proceedings of the 3rd annual ACM conference on Research and development in
15. Did the Memex Impact Future
Developments?
Hypertext / world-wide web
Personal information systems
Modern computer interface
Speech recognition technologies
Computer memory storage
Machine-readable records
Information science
16. Memex and Hypertext/Web
Innovation Memex Hypertext / Web
Relationship between association association
connections
Ideas connected by… Web of trails Hyperlinks, tags
Ideas are… personal Shared/public
Relationships are... Created and consumed Mostly consumed
Relationships are… Bi-directional Uni-directional
Retrieval mechanism Identify trail and then Click
search trail sequentially
Model for memory Human brain Human brain
association
17. Is this the Memex?
= ?
Veith, Richard H. , “Memex at 60: Internet or iPod?”, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR
INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 57(9):1233–1242, 2006
18. Why Was The Memex Important?
Provided a method for dealing with information
overload
Presents a novel approach to organizing personal
information
Remembered as the technological vision of
hypertext
Suggests fascinating possibilities for human-
machine symbiosis.
Derivative inventions represent an opportunity to
study the co-evolution of human practices and
technological tools
March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974Doctorate from MIT and Harvard in 1917Researcher in analog computing – he designed the a computer that could solve differential equations. Also , the “Rapid Selector” which was basically a microfilm reader. Worked on the National Research Council during WWIA founder of Raytheon in 1922Became dean of engineering at MIT in 1932First science advisor to a president (Roosevelt)Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Bush coordinated the activities of some six-thousand leading American scientists in the application of science to warfareProposed the founding of the NSF after WWII – Wrote several important pieces, including “Science: An Endless Frontier” – a description of where research should go.Later served on the board of AT&T and was chairman of Merck
Scientists played a large role in WWII – it created a lot of new developments, but what next?Bush was involved in a lot of the beaurocracyScience has led to specialization - there is a lot of potential, but there are problems“Of what lasting benefit has been man’s use of scienceand of the new instruments which his researchbrought into existence? First, they have increased hiscontrol of his material environment. They have improvedhis food, his clothing, his shelter; they have increased hissecurity and released him partly from the bondage of bareexistence. They have given him increased knowledge of hisown biological processes so that he has had a progressivefreedom from disease and an increased span of life. They areilluminating the interactions of his physiological and psychologicalfunctions, giving the promise of an improvedmental health.
This article is cited as the source for technologies in over 360 articles (as of 1991) – Google Scholar claims over 4000 citations of the article. It was published 3 times in 1945; Atlantic Monthly, Life, and Time.
Bush did not reach this conclusion because of the war; he had this idea in 1932, but the publication of the article in the aftermath of WW II was important. After the war, people had a different view of science – atom bomb, radar, sonar, amphibious vehicles, bomb sightss, etc.“Professionally our methods of transmitting and reviewing the results of research are generations old and by now are totally inadequate for their purpose…”“Mendel’s concept of the laws of genetics was lost to the world for a generation because his publication did not reach the few who were capable of grasping and extending it; and this sort of catastrophe is undoubtedly being repeated all about us, as truly significant attainments become lost in the mass of the inconsequential. “TOO MUCH INFORMATION to consume and most importantly to remember.
Device was NOT an public device for storing or sharing information – it was for private use – like an iPod, not like the Internet or library. Issues of sharing information came up later – Bush added an idea about sharing memex contents, and copyright issues came up way before Napster became popular, but they were never dealt with.
Key Components:Data input mechanismDocument scannerVoice recognizer (vocoder) for converting speech to text Touch-sensitive screen through which text can be entered via a stylus and through which information could be viewedInformation Storage – initially microfilm; later magnetic tape and then memory ‘crystals’Information association mechanism – a keyboard used assign ID numbers to each type of data (e.g. document) The ID number was a marker that associated the data with a topic or subject (what we would call today a ‘tag’)Informational retrieval mechanismCode book where topic IDs were storedTelephone switch technology to locate items by ID numbersRapid Selector switch to page through trailsBig Idea was the idea of creating ‘web of trails’Central to the idea is the use of personal association of ideas:"Our ineptitude in getting at the record is largely caused by the artificiality of systems of indexing.When data of any sort are placed in storage, they are filed alphabetically or numerically, and information is found (when it is) by tracing it down from subclass to subclass.It can only be in one place, unless duplicates are used; one has to have rules as to which path will locate it, and the rules are cumbersome. Having found one item, moreover, one has to emerge from the system and re-enter a new path.""The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association.With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails created by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacies of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.“Not shown here – information could also be inserted by keyboard (typewriter), camera, voice (via voice recognition software-vocoder).A trail was a set of connected ideas – very much like our current idea of hyperlinked objects; conceptually, this is the birth of hypertext.Missing from the picture are the camera, the voice recorder (vocoder) and typewriter for adding information.
Bush was bitter about spending money on the manned space program rather than on his memex, which would bring real value to mankind.
With Bush’s stature and prestige, you would think he or someone else would have taken on the memex.It would have been ‘enormously expensive’ to build - “but no worse than shooting a rocket to the moon” – Bush was outspoken on the folly of the US manned space program.It was an idea before its time - Bush writes that the “the existence of various technical elements and devices were actually in their embryo.”public did not understand the value of project, especially in comparison with the ongoing space program, which he considered “collecting a bucket of talcum powder from the moon.”
Other projects include: ‘Shoebox’ is the name of a digital photo management system developed byAT&T labs in Cambridge, UK (Mills et al, 2002).4Experience on Demand (EOD); initiated in 1997, it was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) andexecuted at the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science.Memories for Life project, which was designed to help people manage,analyse and use the enormous amount of digital data that they will soonhave about themselves‘Stories from a Life’, for example, is a project which helps save ‘stories’ onthe basis of photos or letters as key frames to memoryLifestreams(all cited in Computer as a Personal Memory Devices – van Djck, 2005).Gordon Bell from Microsoft Research built the MyLifeBits system starting in 2001 – he cited Bush’s memex as his motivation/inspiration. The Microsoft Research website also states ‘MyLifeBits is a system that began in 2001 to explore the use of SQL to store all personal information found in PCs.’ Published the original article – “MyLifeBits – Fulfilling the Memex Vision” (ACM Multimedia ’02, December 1-6, 2002, Juan Les Pins, France)Figures From 2005Not a desk, but a software system.Books written (and read when possible)Personal documents (correspondence including memos and email, bills, legal documents, papers written, …)PhotosPosters, paintings, photo of things (artifacts, …medals, plaques)Home movies and videosCD collectionAnd, of course, all PC filesNow recording: phone, radio, TV (movies), web pages… conversations and meetings to comeOnly 44 GB, incl. 10 wma, 14 SQL!!! Video: o(100) + 500 mov1TB gives you 65+ years of:100 email messages a day (5KB each)100 web pages day (50KB each)5 scanned pages a day (100KB each)1 book every 10 days (1 MB each)10 photos per day (400 KB JPEG each)8 hours per day of sound - e.g. telephone,voice annotations, and meeting recordings (8 Kb/s)1 new music CD every 10 days (45 min each at 128 Kb/s)It will take you 5 years to fill up your 80 GB driveThe complicated part of this was creating the relationships between the data. Not easy. Schema was very complicated. Bell says the UI needs a lot of work.
Would you use this?
A citation analysis done in 1991 found that “As You May Think” was referenced meaningfully (i.e. not just in the introduction or in passing) as a starting point for research in 362 documents. Smith, Linda C., “Memex as an Image of Potentiality Revisited,” from Kahn, P. and Nyce J., From Memex to Hypertext”, AP, 1991, pp. 261-279.But Bush didn’t really come up with most of these ideas himself – these were existing technologies – I believe his contribution was in two areas:Hypertext – associating information in the form of trailsBuilding the personal information device (integration of many existing technologies)
Web of trails have names and are basically a group of trails – like a set of books with internal links. Ideas could belong to more than one trail, but the searching was done by “trail name.’ Hyperlinks are real webs – not closed sets of information.Memex was a personal device – not meant to be shared unless one by one – copied by hand.Bi-directional because all ideas belong to the same trail.
Another recent article - Still Building the Memex – Feb 2011.Machine for personal useExtension of one’s own memorya personal archive, housing a collection of all of a person’s books, records, communications (i.e., written communications), newspapers, periodicals subscribed to, and so on, accumulated over the years.easy to find associated information as well as to create associations. (playlists? Folders?) in one’s own collection, including the linked associations, would be easily sharable with others by virtue of quickly copying microfilm frames. Because the links from one item to another were embedded in the microfilm frames containing the items, sharing links that have been added to formal materials such as books and articles would involve copying the materials themselves. Bush, though, did not address the question of copyright or other ownership issues.Easy to use.Accommodate a very large amount of data in a small spaceAllow the owner to build very personal collectionsAccommodates a variety of formats (text, voice, documents)The owner can create lists of associated items, with any item able to appear in multiple lists.The owner can share lists with others.
Memex provides a method for thinking about how to deal with information overload, a condition that continues to plague us.Memex provides a novel approach to organizing personal information, which still has not been solved satisfactorilyMemex is generally remembered as the technological vision of hypertext, which remains an important method for organizing information online.Memex suggests fascinating possibilities for human-machine symbiosis, increasing our ability to achieve our goals or shape new ones.Subsequent development of hypertext, the world wide web, the contemporary computer human interface, and even the iPod/iPad, represent an opportunity to study the co-evolution of human practices and technological tools, since all technologies emanated from the memex.See for example, Levy, DM, “To Grow In Wisdom: Vannevar Bush, Information Overload, and the Life of Leisure,” ACM JCDL ’05.Houston and Harmon, p. 62.Simpson, R, et al, “50 Years After ‘As We May Think’: The Brown/MIT Vannevar Bush Symposium, Interactions, March, 1996, p. 51.The legacy of the Memex was bigger than the device itselfDifferent disciplinesDifferent developments in computersNelson, Engelbart, others – quotes about BushMemex Symposium – MIT – 1996CARPE - ACM Workshop onContinuous Archival & Retrieval of Personal Experiences – started in 2004Memex Summit (Microsoft) – 2006