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Richard H. Veith Memex at 60: Internet or iPod? R. Veith Consulting, 435 Hoffman Road, Port Murray, NJ 07865. E-mail: rveith@gti.net Abstract 2t-S-1Ed-D-P For Peer Review It has been sixty years since the 1945 Memex article, and so much has changed since then that we might well wonder whether the article is still worth looking at. It certainly inspired some of the leading figures in information technology, but now it seems to be cited either for things it did not really say, or because everything it proposed has been pretty much accomplished, albeit with alternate technology. If we take another look at the Memex description, though, there are a few key ideas that can still be goals in terms of an easy-to-use personal collection that is a supplement to one’s own memory. Perhaps in today’s terms, the device would be a combination of the iPod design and a tablet computer. As such, it could function as a handy information pod, with certain Memex features, serving as an extended personal memory. 1 John Wiley & Sons Page 2 of 38
Page 3 of 38 Introduction Thomas Watson, Sr., chairman of IBM, is quoted as saying in 1943, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Vannevar Bush said something similar in his 1945 “As We May Think” article: “With machines for advanced analysis … there was and is no extensive market.” But nobody pays much attention to that. Instead the article For Peer Review is remembered and cited for other reasons, and even (many times it seems) for ideas it did not espouse at all. My purpose here is to take another look at what the 1945 article really said about the Memex, as opposed to extrapolations and extensions that have accumulated over the years, to see if the Memex article has anything to say to us today. The grand thing about the 1945 Memex description is that technology has so surpassed the dated description of levers and relays and microfilm that we all feel free to pick the parts to take literally, the parts to treat liberally, and the parts to ignore. Background 2t-S-1Ed-D-P Before addressing the 1945 article directly, it may be helpful to summarize the historical setting for the article in three respects: its publication history; the related (but different) machine called the Rapid Selector; and the broader context of the Memex concepts. Because there seems to be much misconception about the 1945 article, this 2 John Wiley & Sons
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For Peer Review - GTI Internet

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