As We May Think Annotations
Citation¶
Bush, Vannevar. “As We May Think.” The Atlantic, July 1, 1945. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/.
Annotations¶
who have left academic pursuits for the making of strange destructive gadgets, who have had to devise new methods for their unanticipated assignments. They have done their part on the devices that made it possible to turn back the enemy1
I often think about where we would be now if so many of our brightest minds were not tasked with creating war machines. Sometimes it makes me sad that so much of our technological advancements were dedicated to destruction.
released him partly from the bondage of bare existence1
"Bare existence" or Simple living?
But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends.1
Were we designed to receive so much information all of the time?
A record if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted1
Not of use to science necessarily, but this made me think of the records kept in the Citadel in Game of Thrones. Huge books constantly being expanded upon.
Had a Pharaoh been given detailed and explicit designs of an automobile, and had he understood them completely, it would have taxed the resources of his kingdom to have fashioned the thousands of parts for a single car, and that car would have broken down on the first trip to Giza1
what a bizarre think-piece
A quick squeeze, and the picture is taken.1
Selfie sticks, Google/Snapchat sunglass cameras, drones, and 360° cameras are a few things I see used almost daily that would put this author in a coma
Time is automatically recorded to tie the two records together.1
Timestamps!! This is a thing now!
If we recorded them positionally, simply by the configuration of a set of dots on a card, the automatic reading mechanism would become comparatively simple1
This author is truly so ahead of his time.
A mathematician is not a man who can readily manipulate figures; often he cannot1
Appreciate this as a person who always wants/strives to learn more but somewhat lacks the brain for it.
The cards may be in miniature1
So much reference to something being produced "in miniature" throughout the article. He's basically talking about what we now have - handheld devices and even smaller storage devices.
There is a keyboard, and sets of buttons and levers. Otherwise it looks like an ordinary desk.1
A keyboard is pretty standard for a modern desk now. The addition of buttons and levers gives this visualization the tone of retro-futurism which I love, even though it is founded in solid thought.
If the user wishes to consult a certain book, he taps its code on the keyboard, and the title page of the book promptly appears before him, projected onto one of his viewing positions.1
I wonder how many people read this or heard his thoughts and imagined he was crazy. We now have the world at our fingertips 80 years later. Digitizing books was a very early step.
The process of tying two items together is the important thing.1
Following thoughts and creating connections upon connections.
Presumably man's spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems1
Maybe. But we can now see the decline in mental health as mankind becomes more and more attached to its handheld devices.