For this week’s
assignment, I chose to watch the YouTube video titled “Memex animation - Vannevar Bush's diagrams made real” in
order to grasp Bush’s Memex idea formulated in 1945. With regards to the
animated video, I was a little confused about how the Memex was depicted. It
started off by explaining what a user would experience while using the Memex
and ended with the specific functions of each part of the machine. If I were to
have created this video, I would have flipped the script and explained each
component that made up the Memex before going into detail about its daily uses.
Although I disagree with its presentation format, I think that the animation
provided a great visual of how Bush would have wanted the Memex to be
portrayed. It amazes me how much the Memex and today’s computer have in common,
even though the Memex was created way before its time (in terms of
technological advances). Its closely similar characteristics include searching
back and forth for different ‘projections’ (just like switching from website to
website), looking back into the users search history, copying the user’s
‘trail’ and sending it to another user, and the idea that what you post on the
Memex, and online, do not fade. I can clearly see the connection between the
Memex and future computer accessories, such as the keyboard and mouse, and the
evolution of storing information on microfilm to microchips. Presently, we have
benefited from Bush’s vision of the Memex and have taken technology to a level
that people could not comprehend back in 1945.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c539cK58ees
1 comment:
I watched the same animation and feel the same way as you! I thought the order in which the video was presented should have been flipped. It would have made it much easier to first understand what each part of the memex does, and then understand the uses of it. I think it's very interesting that a lot of us watched the same video. Great blog post
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