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Comments on reading "As We May Think"

Just re-read "As We May Think", the classic article by Vannevar Bush.

Interesting, as always, and strikingly prescient. He describes the Memex, a kind of desk-sized information retrieval tool, with the ability to make links between materials.

What strikes me, however, is his failure to foresee digital technologies. He comes close: when he describes the camera of the future, he refers to raster-scanning and television. However, when it comes to the Memex, he posits a highly improved form of microfilm, and doesn't consider the possibility of applying raster-scanning (digitalization) to other forms of stored information.

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