Is it really possible to improve forever?

In the article “As We May Think” by Vannevar Bush he states “Certainly progress in photography is not going to stop” (Bush, 2). He then goes on to explain just how he thinks photography will improve over the years. I don’t know exactly who this guy is that he thinks he can predict the development and improvement of photography down to the finest detail but I was intrigued anyway. It got me thinking about the improvements of any technical device. Will there ever be a time when we can no longer improve the technology that we live with everyday? Is everything going to stop with flying cars and solar paneled homes or is there more that we don’t know about? Ten years ago I was 11 years old and in fifth grade. We had a computer in our home but no one really knew how to use it except for my dad. Car phones were basically the size of regular home phones and you had to be some high class businessman to even own one. Digital cameras weren’t even a thought in my mind. I was still using the disposable ones and dropping them off at Shop Rite for the week long developing process.

As I sit here and think of how far we have come in just ten years, all I can really do is wonder what else does the future hold for us? I can only hope that it will somehow involve robots that will do my cooking and cleaning and cars that will fly over the ridiculous amounts of traffic I hit going into Philadelphia. There are so many things that I want to see improve but then I have to ask myself another question. Will the improvement of those things help the rest of mankind as well? As a 21 year old college student it is extremely easy to focus on myself and the things that would make my life easier but then there is that little voice inside of me that has to think of everyone else in the world as well. At least it’s good to know I still have a conscious.

The Memex and the Memes

As We May Think

Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and, to coin one at random, “memex” will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory. From page 7.

Vannevar Bush’s essay is his view on the future integration and implications of science and technology. In part six, Bush muses about a future device that may mimic the way the human mind stores and distributes data. While he feels that human brain power will never be duplicated (remember the video from the first day of class? Shift Happens ), he proposes a device that will simulate the ease at which date is collected and processed by the brain. He coined this device as the Memex.

A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory. It consists of a desk, and while it can presumably be operated from a distance, it is primarily the piece of furniture at which he works. On the top are slanting translucent screens, on which material can be projected for convenient reading. There is a keyboard, and sets of buttons and levers. Otherwise it looks like an ordinary desk. In one end is the stored material. The matter of bulk is well taken care of by improved microfilm. Only a small part of the interior of the memex is devoted to storage, the rest to mechanism. Yet if the user inserted 5000 pages of material a day it would take him hundreds of years to fill the repository, so he can be profligate and enter material freely. Page 7

We can all recognize that we use devices similar to the Memex daily. Our home computers, our cell-phones, even some of our home appliances store information and access the internet to retrieve more. The idea of the Memex was ahead of its time, and now, literally, we are living in the age of the Memex.

What struck me as interesting in the idea of the Memex was the relationship this process has to “Memes”. Read about the “Meme”. While the two names have nothing in common other than the word Meme, the ideas relate completely. The idea of the Memex is the rapid storage and retrieval of all sorts of information, something that as evolved into the internet, among other things. A meme is, in its most basic definition, a unit of intellectual or cultural information. The internet is one of the main catalysts in the evolution and adaption of memes. Bush had no idea how the realization of the Memex would transform the very data people would wish to access and manipulate. The very nature of the system has affected the way information is perceived.

Are we dehumanizing ourselves with technology?

In a world, based on technology, full of conflict and terror, we are so dependent on other systems for recording the events of our daily lives. As a culture, we are so dependent of instant messaging services, email, digital cameras, and above all digital cell phones. Cell phones are now attached to our ears and for some taking part in blue tooth technology, cell phones are constant. What has happened that we no longer feel connected to ourselves and have the ability to read our inner selves? What happened to the ideas of meditation and relaxation? And reconnecting to our spirituality? If technology was no longer available, would we be able to relax as a collective?

In an article by Vannevar Bush “As We May Think,” published in 1945, the author states, “Presumably man’s spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems. He has built a civilization so complex that he needs to mechanize his records more fully if he is to put his experiment to its logical conclusion and not merely become bogged down party way there by overtaxing his limited memory. His excursion may be more enjoyable if he can reacquire the privilege of forgetting the manifold things he does not need to have immediately at hand with some assurance that he can find them again if they prove important” (9). (On a side note, it is important to note that the author spoke about technology and published this article in 1945.)

Our culture has become so complex that we need to advance our technological resources to record each and every moment. I know that each event is recorded with a digital camera and once I get a grade on a test I call my mom or if I’m having a bad day I call my best friend. There is no such day that I am without technology. What would happen if we all stopped using our cell phones and went back in a time where neighbors “called” upon each other? How amazing would it be if we went back to physical labor and reconnected with ourselves without technology? Maybe students would use the library not for studying purposes, but for research and to take books out for entertainment?

If we all took a step back from technology, we may become better people. No longer would we have the problem of technological literacy and the technology divide? For once, since the beginning of time we would all be equal and there would be nothing to divide us.