As We May Think

Bush, Vannevar

Este artigo de Vannevar Bush foi originalmente publicado em Julho de 1945 na Revista Atlantic Monthly. Trata-se de uma versão retrabalhada e expandida do seu "Mechanization and the Record" de 1939 e nele descreve algo, em muitos aspectos, semelhante à World Wide Web, nomeadamente, na descrição que faz do seu «Memex» («MEMory EXtended), sistema electromecânico precursor do «hipertexto» e concebido para suprir as «falhas de memória humana» (imagem abaixo).

Introduction

This has not been a scientist's war; it has been a war in which all have had a part. The scientists, burying their old professional competition in the demand of a common cause, have shared greatly and learned much. It has been exhilarating to work in effective partnership. Now, for many, this appears to beapproaching an end. What are the scientists to do next?

For the biologists, and particularly for the medical scientists, there can be little indecision, for their war work has hardly required them to leave the old paths. Many indeed have been able to carry on their war research in their familiar peacetime laboratories. Their objectives remain much the same.

It is the physicists who have been thrown most violently off stride, who have left academic pursuits for the making of strange destructive gadgets, who have had to devise new methods for their unanticipated assignments. They have done their part on the devices that made it possible to turn back the enemy.

They have worked in combined effort with the physicists of our allies. They have felt within themselves the stir of achievement. They have been part of a great team. Now, as peace approaches, one asks where they will find objectives worthy of their best.

Ensaio

2008-01-15

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