Vannevar Bush and the WWW

Jim Marinetti:
First, can you tell our audience how it is similar?

Vannevar Bush:
One of the fundamental concepts of the memex was the "provision whereby any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another...tying two items together." The Web's hyperlinks seem to do this associative indexing work. It's a bit disorganized, though, because so many different people can add to the information on the Web and connect it however they like. Only designated hyperlinks, mostly designated by writers, connect to associated information.

Bush demonstrates his "photocompositer," an early word processor

I thought of the memex as more of a personal contraption. I would add the information that I found interesting and associate it in ways that made sense to me. If I was a lawyer, I could trade associative trails with other lawyers and we could build up an impressive index of organized information. The Web seems too large to be organized in such useful trails, or else it is just too difficult to find useful trails. I never thought that all of the memex information in the world would be connected. It might just be too much information. I don't think such a large body of information can be easily designed to match the thought process of a human mind. I don't know if Web networks are advancements or just complications.

Jim Marinetti:
Most people today consider being wired and being connected to the Internet very positive advancements. Explain to this modern audience why a globally connected Web might be a complication. I guess I'm asking why the local memex has an advantage over the global Web.

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