Looking back at Vannevar Bush’s article, “As we may think,” there are a few things that I didn’t agree with or understand well. One thing that bothered me was the line, “Our present languages are not especially adapted to this sort of mechanization, it is true.” This was when he was speaking of combining different machines in order to record things easier. This bothers me for the simple fact that while languages have changed over time, such as with the induction of new words or slang, they basically remain the same. English is still English, Spanish is still Spanish, and so on. What he’s suggesting is a completely new language that everyone would have to learn in order to use the Voder and Vocoder combo effectively. While that may be possible for some people, for others I don’t think it would be possible.
Another thing that bothers me is that nowhere throughout the whole article does he mention anything about cost. Bush also seems to barely mention anything about practicality. While the memex is more or less a really old school version of a computer made from inventions of the time, Bush never seems to mention anything about how much this thing would cost. In the memex, all the information would be on microfilm and have plenty of space for it. “Yet if the user inserted 5000 pages of material a day it would take him hundreds of years to fill the repository.” I see a few problems with this. One, where would someone get all these pages and microfilm? Two, what about cost? I don’t think all that microfilm would be cheap. Lastly, any information put into the memex could easily become outdated, thus requiring the owner to replace it on almost a regular basis. I seriously doubt anyone would be able to do this. So while the functions and abilities that Bush imagined are common for today’s computers, the methods he imagined in creating and employing those abilities don’t seem quite as practical when thought out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hey there Eric! I agree with what you had to say in regards to the Bush reading. While some of the ideas that he had were beneficial, it seemed that some of the things that he had to say were unrealistic. There were no costs put into play in regards to this new technology that he had, and there were many ideas that came across, such as how he doesn't want the technology to fall into the wrong hands. But the thing about this is, is that it is so silly to think that certain people are not going to end up with the information that they shouldnt have. There are always crazy people out there that are going to get information that they shouldnt have. Well... anyways i kinda of got off on my own tanget there, but in regards to your post, i agree that no where in Bush's article does he really talk about cost effective strategies, and this is something that i think is important, and also something that i did not understand fully also.
I can understand where you are coming from with your disagreement with Bush's essay. He doesn't go in depth about the problems that would be facing this machine, especially in regards to the aspects of time, man hours creating film and the constant update, and the cost to create and maintain this machine. While these are problems with the article, I believe that the central issue that Bush is going for is much broader than feasibility. I think that Bush was attempting to get at was how the machines and man will cooperate in the future. So, while the Memex is outdated technically, the fundamental idea is still in our consciousness. Thanks for letting me post.
Post a Comment