Vannevar Bush
“As We May Think,” 1945
Auction Closed
July 15, 07:23 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
VANNEVAR BUSH
2 titles:
“As We May Think,” In: The Atlantic, Vol. 176, No. 1, pp 101-108. Concord, NH: July 1945. 4to (270 x 195 mm; 10 5/8 x 7 11/16 inches). Original printed wrappers. Creases to spine, edge wear, an attractive example overall.
WITH: Endless Horizons. Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, [1946]. Original brick-red cloth stamped in gold, double-sided dust jacket. Endpapers toned, paperclip offset to a few preliminary leaves, covers rubbed, jacket with small chips mainly to edges.
SIGNED & INSCRIBED by Bush to Major C. G. Montgomery, and with a War Department, Army Service Forces Memo Routing Slip presenting the book, mounted to front pastedown endpaper.
FIRST TITLE IS FIRST APPEARANCE OF THIS FAMOUS PREMONITION OF THE INTERNET.
Vannevar Bush here advocated, as World War II came to a close, for science to move beyond the physical and extend the mind by way of lateral associations and interconnections, thereby introducing the idea of hypertext. From the article: "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 ... Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready-made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified ... Thus Science may implement the ways in which man produces, stores, and consults the record of race."
Bush's article would inspire engineer Doug Engelbart to invent the mouse, the word processor and the hyperlink and Ted Nelson to further develop a hypertext system in his Xanadu. Endless Horizons is a collections of articles, papers and official reports and also includes “As We May Think.” Hook & Norman Origins of Cyberspace 519; Tomash & Williams B296.