As We May Think
Publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record.
by Vannevar Bush, 1945
http://u-tx.net/ccritics/as-we-may-think.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/0...
According to Bush the science has improved human life in many ways, but now we are becoming stuck because we cannot notice and apply the whole knowledge that has been reached and constantly grows; there is no time to grasp it all.
"Truly significant attainments become lost in the mass of the inconsequential."
"Publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record."
Discussing how our machines used to record our knowledge are used and will develop, like "the advanced arithmetical machines of the future" and the memex, a kind of machine that looks like a desk that uses association to process our information.
The human mind operates by association: "the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature."