Bryan Kingston

Week 1 – Vannevar Bush

Vannevar Bush

Vannevar Bush (March 11th, 1890 – June 30th, 1974) was born in Everett, Massachusetts. He was an American engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computing and his influence on Human Computer Interaction (HCI) which can be seen today through the World Wide Web and Hypertext. He is also known for his political role in the development of the atomic bomb, and the idea of the Memex, which was seen decades later as a pioneering concept for the World Wide Web.

Vannevar was educated at Tufts College (now Tufts University) from which he graduated in 1913. While at Tufts, Bush enjoyed his first experience as an inventor. One of his inventions was a land surveying device he called the profile tracer which looked like a lawnmower. As it was pushed over land it automatically calculated elevations and drew a crude map. It allowed one man to do the work usually done by three. Bush thought it would be commercially successful, but it never caught on. He learned from this failure and he learned that to become a real engineer he needed to learn more than math and physics. He also then knew he needed to learn how to effectively deal with people.

After college he worked in General Electric as a supervising “test man”, although he was laid off after a fire broke out in his plant.

Memex

Bush then introduced the concept of what he called the Memex in the 1930s, a microfilm-based machine, in which an individual stores all their books, records, and communications. It is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. The machine was to extend the powers of human memory and association, just as the human mind forms memories through associations. The user of the Memex would be able to make links between documents and this system is remarkably similar to modern hypertext.

Vannevar Bush died on June 30, 1974, years before the Internet became widely popular or the World Wide Web even existed. With the growing popularity of the Internet many now look back through its history and see Bush as a visionary from his Memex. This has been credited by people such as J. C. R. Licklider and Douglas Engelbart.  

References:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush
 http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/bush.html
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj6ADC8ezxk
 http://www.knowledgesearch.org/presentations/etcon/images/memex.gif

Video:
The following 40 second video describes Vannevar Bush’s Memex, which i find very interesting and is well worth a viewing.