Memex

Bush's first article discusses how the hypothetical Memex would work and what the capabilities it would possess. The article is written in more abstract terms because the technology would not be available for some time after its publication. The Memex would be able to pull up any piece of text by just entering a code into the machine and could store a massive collection of information, greater than imagined. He also mentioned the Memex containing photographs that could be used as well.

The piece published in 1967 is written more technically as advancements towards creating a "Memex" were made in the 25 year period between the two articles. Computers were being developed at the time, some of which resembled Bush's vision. The conference in 1995 is very similar, although the internet and personal computers were dominating the information storage market, they see Bush as an influence for creating the modern computer. His concept for a searchable library resembles Google, but on a smaller scale.

I found this website that details a computer project to create the Memex exactly as Bush describes in his article. The team is also developing a code and program that would make the Memex available as a computer application. Although it would be limited and not as useful as Internet search engines it would be interesting to see how the machine would work and whether or not it would be able to live up to Bush's expectations. The only thing with developing the Memex is that there is more information and technology available for the design team to use to make the Memex functional. If they are successful, it will be hard to determine if it was plausible to design it in the 1940s-1950s.

Website: http://memexsim.sourceforge.net/index.html