As We May Think By Vannevar Bush July 1945

1
As We May ThinkBy Vannevar BushJuly 1945

• Presented by
• Steve Hookway
• 9/6/05

2
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 pages1
• 4 billion estimated in 20011
• In 2002 over 9,040,000 Web Sites2

1. Sizing the Internet, Cyveillance White Paper
   Prepared by Brian H. Murray, Cyveillance, Inc.
2. OCLC Online Computer Library Center

3
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
  microfilm1,2

1. DocFinity http//www.docfinity.com/ 2.
Captiva http//www.captivasoftware.com/index.asp
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Creating a RecordWritten

• Then
• Synthesize speech Voder
• Record speech Vocoder, Stenotype
• Early voice recognition
• Early character recognition - adding
• Now
• Voice and Text Recognition Software1
• Philips 9450 VC Pocket Memo2

1. ART Speech and Handwriting Interfaces for Mobil
   Devices
2. Phillips 9450 VC Pocket Memo

5
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
• IBMs Blue Gene/Lite capable of 360 teraflops
  trillions of calculations per second used to
  study interactions between atmospheric chemistry
  and pollution1

1. Blue Gene/L
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Information Selection

• Then
• Simple Selection (Card Reader)
• Examines each piece in turn
• Problems indexing
• Now
• Existing web search techniques
• Content/Link analysis

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Information Selection

• Then
• Conventional Indexing is Inconvenient
• The Memex
• Large Storage
• Easy retrieval
• Now
• Conventional Indexing Made Easier
• The Personal PC
• Dells Base Model comes with an 80GB hard drive
  1

1. Dell Dimension Desktops
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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)

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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