PWLTO#16 – Andrew Louis on The Memex and designing the internet before digital computers

Fresh from his experiences during World War 2, scientist Vannevar Bush wrote an essay entitled "As We May Think" (1945) about a physical device that could help people deal with information overload with a hope that it could prevent our species from accidentally destroying itself. His “Memex” would store and organize an individual’s library and allow for annotating, linking, and sharing with others. In an era when “computer” meant a room full of people manually calculating numbers, Bush’s gave us a vision of how computers could empower individuals.

***

This talk was given at the 16th meeting of the Toronto chapter of Papers We Love, hosted at Shopify Toronto on April 6, 2016:

http://www.meetup.com/Papers-We-Love-Toronto/events/229518049/