The Book AsMain MenuA Repository of InformationA PerformanceA JourneyJessie CarterA Conceptual Playground for Choice(sagesolar, 2014, “The king of hearts”)A Medium for Universal LanguageA Phenomenal ReadingA Relationship Between Recto and VersoA Vision of the FutureA Repository of LanguageKate Aberman74d96e55dd29b74bef0e0a20c2d79e879fab26ccEmmie Banksd3c00922e17d33400599c8143d1d353f7d36ea7aJessie Cartera6f04f02805133baaf416ab9fcd9a4a2b857b080Deanna Fayed2f0ded76fb9215a15ea7a11b638a892a604843bfGabby Huberta3f266b029aa2bada1c10fd4a31317d37a1bec9dKatherine King6125a92332113f4973e618b8e428aac70a6ed790Carol Leea596a4440954bb8282b044cb431f3d2b8a9a8e75Sarah Richmanbeb66f0b62cd0c55d75ac46cfcf447f52ffe6aa8Matthew Winz5800f51dc1a62f1d2397973f41e4b16a521351b3whitney trettienf2bbb7126b60dc1bee07050dccbd9d30f12d7b2b
Atom Bomb
12016-12-06T07:44:19-08:00Matthew Winz5800f51dc1a62f1d2397973f41e4b16a521351b3135562for a punplain2016-12-06T07:44:28-08:00Matthew Winz5800f51dc1a62f1d2397973f41e4b16a521351b3
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12016-12-06T07:32:52-08:00"As We May Think" by Vannevar Bush9plain2016-12-09T10:25:28-08:00 Following World War II, the world stood briefly stupefied. The vast scale of the war had, in a sense, made the world seem smaller. The horrors of combat were over, and the soldiers were set to return home. A technological boom had changed everyone's notions of what was possible, and at the front of this newfound sense of discovery was the computer. A wartime innovation, the computer was an invaluable information tool, and the applications of this device were full of possibilities. One man, Vannevar Bush, thought that a computer-like device called the memex was the future of reading.
The memex is intended to compile all one's books, articles, and records into one convenient machine, a sort of "personal library". Vannevar thought that the sheer volume of writing being produced at the time defied the efforts of archivists and collectors. He was at a point in history where, for the first time, people were becoming more aware of how much bigger the world was then they could possibly fathom. The memex was an effort to condense the world into one desk-sized compilation of any text a person could reasonably want, need, or use.
Perhaps the most important legacy of the memex is the burgeoning idea of hypertext. The machine allowed its users to make connections and pathways through different series of texts or portions of texts. "Associative indexing", as Vannevar calls it, allows users to create meaning through comparison, and for others to be able to follow one's stream of consciousness over several works. The memex is the basis for many hypertextual platforms, including Scalar. While Vannevar's desk-library might not be a reality, his prediction was extremely prescient.