Memex Vision

The Memex was to be an automated information browser built on microfilm technology. It was described by VannevarBush in a visionary paper, AsWeMayThink, published in the July, 1945 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. Many of the computer age's visionaries, like DougEngelbart, TedNelson, BobCzech and ScottPreece were inspired by Memex and have worked hard to bring the vision into existence.

The description of the Memex, in the paper AsWeMayThink, included the first description of what is now called HyperText.

http://www.foresight.org/EOC/EOC_Chapter_14.html#section01of05

A collection of essays on the Memex, both by Bush and others, appear in: Nyce, J. and Kahn, P., From Memex To Hypertext, Academic Press, 1991, ISBN 0125232705

Discussion:

While what Bush describes is certainly HyperText, it is interesting to me that he focuses on "trails": sets of links between documents created by a user during the course of a particular line of thought or research. I think this is significant because we're accustomed to seeing links embedded within the documents themselves, by the authors of the documents; this is quite a different thing. --KeithMann

Do you mean automatically created paths between objects in a system? I agree those are very important. -- RK

I don't know about "automatically created" (because that implies that the system itself is somehow creating them), but certainly "automatically recorded" in that the system keeps track of the user's trails. The user should then be free to edit and/or share his trail. --KeithMann

Very feasible with SWEB technologies such as through topic maps and rdf/n3. Topic Maps is probably the closest, as they are by default quadruples, aka associations/"wires" that can be "pulled" in both directions, whereas for RDF you need to duplicate in both sides (or use some inference engine) -- OC

There is a BushyTreeDiagram presenting the far-flung influence of Memex and Englebart's ideas.