Like any other species, humankind learns through its senses. We are adaptive, finding new ways to level up in strength, comfort, and ease by changing our behaviors in the context of our environment. That said, humans stand apart for a reason. Our evolution has been aided by tools that go beyond sticks and stones. Most notably, we’ve created machines.
Vannevar Bush wrote the now acclaimed essay “As We May Think” in 1945, fresh off the heels of World War II. As Bush describes, scientists were left twiddling their thumbs (not a bad place to be, in my opinion) removed from rapid-fire ballistics work and confronted with an ever-growing sea of information. Although there were several means of storing and receiving information at the time—ranging from photography to typewriters—none were a direct line to one’s specific needs in the pursuit of knowledge.
“All our steps in creating or absorbing material of the record proceed through one of the senses—the tactile when we touch keys, the oral when we speak or listen, the visual when we read. Is it not possible that some day the path may be established more directly?”
— Vannevar Bush, “As We May Think”
Today, “As We May Think” is heralded as something truly before its time, particularly in its description of the memex. A machine of Bush’s own imagination, the memex is a lifeboat on this sea of data, helping users find the knowledge they seek through “association and context,” similar to how we use Google today. Bush’s essay also implicates what we now know as hyperlinks and hypertext, both of which become especially important in a conversation about the web.
In the early 2000s, there was a shift in the web with regards to its content. Where before its focus was solely on publishing, now it seemed to champion communication and interaction as a means of taming and exploring so-called waves of data. Weblogs—or web blogs—experienced a boost in popularity, storing dozens of sources and providing analyses for them in the centralized, direct manner Bush seemed to favor.
“A record if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted.”
— Vannevar Bush, “As We May Think”
To this day, blogging—and self-publication in general—remains a centerpiece of web culture and a popular way of navigating the various streams of information present in our lives. Medium, for instance, provides a platform for professionals from all walks of life to share their knowledge (and even earn a living from it). Given how white and male the publishing industry has been historically, platforms like these are much-needed. On Instagram and other social media, users intake astronomical amounts of data in mere hours, compartmentalizing everything with ease—so much so, that the issue now is getting users to step away and disconnect.
It’s difficult to imagine how Vannevar Bush would react to the Internet as it is today. Anyone can ship their two cents out into the world now—taking into account, of course, various racial/economic/gender-related imbalances—and yet for the most part, the world is miraculously able to keep up. So yes; as Bush predicted, machines have helped us stay abreast in a world nearly drowned in its own voice. But for how long? To what end? What might a modern “As We May Think” have to say?
