An Ode to `As We May Think`

Episode 3

I recently came across an essay, `As We May Think`, which I instantly took a liking to. The author, Vannevar Bush, held a great responsibility during WWII - to ensure “rapid progress in technological development for practical war applications” (or build weapons faster than the bad guys!). During his life, Bush thought deeply about how to accelerate scientific progress, and it was a joy to soak up some of his wisdom.

The Memex

The essay introduces the Memex (portmanteau of memory + expansion), something I find especially relevant today. Bush, realizing the need for advancement in information organization and access, reasoned of a hypothetical object which augments an individual’s memory:

.. 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.

Having spent time thinking about information organization and access, I was immediately taken to the Memex and its impact on greater society. In my own reflecting, I reasoned that using a Memex enables forward progress by providing a reliable, permanent place to store knowledge, as well as a mechanism that allows quick access to said information. As a matter of fact, people have been trying to improve the standard memory offering (single human brain) since the beginnings of human civilization! From sharing stories around the campfire to widespread adoption of Google Drive, storing and retrieving data has been essential to humans rapidly iterating society.

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Today, the internet is used as a Memex. Advances in technology have made storing, searching and accessing information cheap and reliable.

Let’s think of Google and the internet. People (and bots) from across the globe contribute data, forming a network with pedabytes of information. Google then organizes and ranks the data, and consumers query the service to discover information they need.

Local vs Global

The Google analogy further provides the perfect vehicle for explaining the concept of local vs global. Let’s define two pillars of the company.

Google Search: a mechanism for querying a global, constantly shifting, “centralized” storage of information.

Google Drive: a reliable, easy way to store and retrieve personally relevant information, including personal creations / collaborations with others or references to intriguing data from the global network.

Google Search is a manifestation of a global Memex; it’s a mechanism to query the public database of information. Google Drive is a manifestation of a local Memex; an individual controls what is written to it.

The framework of local vs global in the context of information organization is very important. We live in an age of information, and our ability to discover, process, store, and reference information affects our daily lives. From social media to societal productivity, information is at the root of what we do!

Wrap

As I write this, I can’t help but think about this article’s life in Bush’s terms.

An innocuous search query had yielded a wonderful article from the global Memex, remarkably (and perfectly) preserved from 1945. I was then able to take its essence and create an article for you all, writing data to my local Memex in the process. Consequentially, it will find itself in your local Memex for as long as you, dear reader, keep this blog in your mind :).

What do you think about the local / global framework? Does it apply to any aspects of your own life? I’ll be exploring this topic more in the future, so stay tuned!