Vannevar Bush

Vannevar Bush (March 11, 1890–June 30, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor, and politician, known for his political role in the development of the atomic bomb, and idea of the memex —seen as a pioneering concept for the world wide web. He was allegedly a member of the secret committee Majestic 12 investigating UFO activities.

The Memex

He invented the concept of what he called the memex in the 1930s, a microfilm-based "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."

Related Topics:
Memex - 1930s - Microfilm

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As scholars like Buckland have proven, the memex was severely flawed because Bush did not understand information science, or microfilm very well. Also, Bush never bothered to do much research on previous systems. He was ignorant of the microfilm based workstation proposed by Leonard Townsend in 1938 or the more detailed microfilm and electronics based selector, patented by Emmanuel Goldberg in 1931.

Related Topics:
Information science - Leonard Townsend - 1938 - 1931

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He despised the humanities and social sciences (he badly weakened American anthropology when he choked off a large part of its funding in the 1930s), and refused to talk to the librarians who could have helped refine his ideas. But the memex is still an important accomplishment, because it directly inspired the development of hypertext technology.

Related Topics:
Humanities - Social sciences - Anthropology - Hypertext

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After fantasizing about the potential of microfilm for several years, Bush set out his thoughts at length in the essay "As We May Think" in the Atlantic Monthly in July 1945. In the article, Bush predicted that, "Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified." A few months later (10 September 1945) Life magazine published a condensed version of "As We May Think," accompanied by several illustrations showing the possible appearance of a memex machine and its companion devices. This version of the essay was subsequently read by both Ted Nelson and Douglas Engelbart, and inspired them to independently formulate the various ideas that became hypertext.

Related Topics:
As We May Think - Atlantic Monthly - 1945 - Encyclopedia - 10 September - ''Life'' magazine - Ted Nelson - Douglas Engelbart

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In 1943, he received the AIEE's Edison Medal 'For his contribution to the advancement of electrical engineering, particularly through the development of new applications of mathematics to engineering problems, and for his eminent service to the nation in guiding the war research program.' The Vannevar Bush Award was created by the National Science Foundation in 1980 to honor contributions to public service.

Related Topics:
AIEE - Edison Medal - Vannevar Bush Award - National Science Foundation - 1980

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