Uploaded June 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A reading of the famous and highly influential essay As We May Think by scientist Vannevar Bush, the head of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, from the July 1945 Issue of The Atlantic Magazine shortly before the end of World War II. The essay has been described as visionary and influential and anticipating many aspects of the information society. In it Bush describes his visionary Memex machine, which predates modern computers but serves many of the same functions. In the essay Bush expresses his concern for the direction of scientific efforts toward destruction, rather than understanding, and explicates a desire for a sort of collective memory machine with his concept of the Memex that would make knowledge more accessible, believing that it would help fix these problems. Through this machine, Bush hoped to transform an information explosion into a knowledge explosion.
Early computer and Internet pioneer Douglas Engelbart was inspired and influenced by this essay after first reading it while serving as a radio and radar technician in the US Navy in the Philippines. The essay influenced his thinking and later work with human and computer interfaces and and the development of hypertext.
The essay also influenced information and computer visionary Ted Nelson, who coined the terms hypertext and hypermedia in 1963.
Text of the Essay:
theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881
This is an AI reading.
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elevenlabs.io/?from=partnermora1958
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drewrampley.com
Drew Rampley - 2024
A reading of the famous and highly influential essay As We May Think by scientist Vannevar Bush, the head of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, from the July 1945 Issue of The Atlantic Magazine shortly before the end of World War II. The essay has been described as visionary and influential and anticipating many aspects of the information society. In it Bush describes his visionary Memex machine, which predates modern computers but serves many of the same functions. In the essay Bush expresses his concern for the direction of scientific efforts toward destruction, rather than understanding, and explicates a desire for a sort of collective memory machine with his concept of the Memex that would make knowledge more accessible, believing that it would help fix these problems. Through this machine, Bush hoped to transform an information explosion into a knowledge explosion.
Early computer and Internet pioneer Douglas Engelbart was inspired and influenced by this essay after first reading it while serving as a radio and radar technician in the US Navy in the Philippines. The essay influenced his thinking and later work with human and computer interfaces and and the development of hypertext.
The essay also influenced information and computer visionary Ted Nelson, who coined the terms hypertext and hypermedia in 1963.
Text of the Essay:
theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881
This is an AI reading.
Be sure to use my affiliate link for ElevenLabs:
elevenlabs.io/?from=partnermora1958
Don't Forget to Subscribe!
If you enjoy our audiobooks, please like, comment, and subscribe to our channel for more literary classics because more is on the way! Click the bell icon to get notified whenever we upload new content!
drewrampley.com
Drew Rampley - 2024
