Dr. Vannevar Bush and the Memex
Born in 1890 in Belmont, Massachusetts, Dr. Vannevar Bush was an American scientist, the Vice President of MIT, principal science advisor to the President during the second world war and a towering figure in early computing. While his work was wide ranging and spanned many areas of investigation, his most intriguing idea was perhaps the “Memex”, described in “As we may think”, an article he wrote for The Atlantic in 1945.
Dr. Bush was also the founder of the company that eventually became defense giant, Raytheon. He was part of the Manhattan Project to build a nuclear weapon and headed the Office of Scientific Research & Development. Not bad for a single career!
0.1 The Memex
Dr. Bush imagined the Memex as a desk which contained numerous optical, electrical and mechanical subsystems intended to allow users to survey, search, annotate and effectively recall vast quantities of information. Since digital information storage technologies provided nowhere near the capacity required for a task like this, Dr. Bush proposed that all content; drawings and text, be saved on photographic micro-film, to be called up on two independent screens built into the the Memex’s desktop. Mechanical and electrical buttons and levers would allow pages to be flipped, links to be created between articles visible on the left and right screens, and annotations to be added.
The linking of articles together to form a “trail” was the precursor to the idea of hyperlinks. Dr. Bush also imagined that trails could be saved independently and provided to other Memex users on film or tape; a type of early “HTML file” transferable to others.
Additional elements integrated with the Memex desk were a stylus for annotation of viewed material, drawers within which rolls of film were stored and a photographic assembly that could take new pictures and commit them to the analog film memory of the Memex.
0.2 Lessons to learn from the design of the Memex
0.2.1 Once people believe an idea, it becomes real soon thereafter
While the Memex was not actually built as a physical device, Dr. Bush’s description of the invention seemed practical and achievable. As such, it paved the way for digital implementations of similar technology that came soon after. Once an idea is seeded and a community of doers begins to believe that it is achievable, it inevitably becomes real soon thereafter. With the notable exceptions of faster than light flight, time travel and the holodeck, much of what Star Trek imagined as possible; tablet computers, voice and natural language interfaces to computers, medical sensor devices (tricorders) and laser weapons, are all available today in the form of inexpensive products. Captain Kirk’s comm badge almost seems like trivial technology. Today’s iPads are slimmer and more sophisticated than the beefy computing pads used by Captain Benjamin Sisko as recently as Deep Space Nine, which was filmed in the 1990s.
0.2.2 Combining various different technologies and disciplines leads to powerful outcomes
Even though Dr. Bush was an electrical engineer himself, he incorporated mechanical and optical technologies along side electrical systems, to power the Memex. He knew that the digital storage technologies from his own field were underdeveloped for his application, so he borrowed from photographic technology and optics.
This principle of looking beyond one’s own field and immediate area of expertise applies equally today. If something is impossible for the tools and technologies in one field, it may be achievable with the tools from another area. Broad knowledge of the art of the possible across fields - and collaborations with those from other fields - makes for amazing, even magical inventions.
0.2.3 Publishing is also a feature
Microsoft product managers are famous for the expression, “shipping is also a feature”. If you don’t ship your work, all other features it may have become irrelevant. Shipping is that all-important feature that allows real users in the real world to actually utilize your work for their benefit.
Dr. Bush did not give into conservative mindedness, demur or fear publishing his idea to the world just because he had not reduced the Memex to practice. He pieced together the best description he could and shipped the idea! Even though he wasn’t able to build the Memex himself, he inspired Doug Engelbart, Ted Nelson and Tim Berners-Lee to develop successor technologies that finally resulted in the World Wide Web.
An idea that never leaves the lab, or even worse - the inventor’s mind - is of no use to anyone! It takes guts to put your creations “out there” in the world, for others to criticize, like or dislike. So whenever in doubt, think of Dr. Vannevar Bush. Could your next idea be as great and impactful as the Memex?