The Web fulfills [Vannevar] Bush’s dream of a memex in many respects. While a “universe” of knowledge is still evolving on the Web, the hypertext “trails” on Web pages are associative indexes that people save and share. The Web’s basic structure rests on Bush’s principle of associative indexing, and the flourishing of information on the Web in the last few years demonstrates its potential as a “universe of documents.”
Predictor: December, John
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for Computer-Mediated Communication magazine, John December writes: ”Vannevar Bush, in a landmark article called ‘As We May Think’ in the July 1945 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, described his vision of a device for helping the human mind cope with information. Bush observed that previous inventions expanded human abilities to deal with the physical world, but not floods of information and knowledge. Observing that the human mind works by association through ‘some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain,’ Bush proposed a device he called a ‘memex’ which could augment the human mind through ‘associative indexing.’ Bush’s vision was for a system of information which could link documents in ‘trails’ that could be saved and shared with others. The Web fulfills Bush’s dream of a memex in many respects. While a ‘universe’ of knowledge is still evolving on the Web, the hypertext ‘trails’ on Web pages are associative indexes that people save and share. The Web’s basic structure rests on Bush’s principle of associative indexing, and the flourishing of information on the Web in the last few years demonstrates its potential as a ‘universe of documents.'”
Biography:John December’s publications include articles and books about the World Wide Web, Internet and Java. From 1985 to 1989, he developed software and graphical user interfaces to analyze aircraft requirements for military missions at Boeing. He later became president of December Communications, an online Web-publishing, presentations, and consulting company based in Milwaukee, Wis. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine
Title, headline, chapter name: Challenges for a Webbed Society
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1994/nov/websoc.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Walsh, Meghan