 the memex (a portmanteau of "memory" and "index" or "memory" and "extender") is the name of the hypothetical proto-hypertext system that vannevar bush described in his 1945 the atlantic monthly article "as we may think". bush envisioned the memex as a device in which individuals would compress and store all of their books, records, and communications, "mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility." the memex would provide an "enlarged intimate supplement to one's memory".. the concept of the memex influenced the development of early hypertext systems (eventually leading to the creation of the world wide web) and personal knowledge base software.davies, stephen. "still building the memex." communications of the acm 54.2 (feb. 2011): 80â88. business source elite. web. 12 dec. 2011. however, the memex system used a form of document bookmark list, of static microfilm pages, rather than a true hypertext system where parts of pages would have internal structure beyond the common textual format. == details == === a proto-hypertext system === in "as we may think," bush describes a memex as an electromechanical device enabling individuals to develop and read a large self-contained research library, create and follow associative trails of links and personal annotations, and recall these trails at any time to share them with other researchers. this device would closely mimic the associative processes of the human mind, but it would be gifted with permanent recollection. as bush writes, "thus science may implement the ways in which man produces, stores, and consults the record of the race". the technology used would have been a combination of electromechanical controls, microfilm cameras and readers, all integrated into a large desk. most of the microfilm library would have been contained within the desk, but the user could add or remove microfilm reels at will. the top of the desk would have slanting translucent screens on which material could be projected for convenient reading. the top of the memex would have a transparent platen. when a longhand note, photograph, memoranda, or other things were placed on the platen, the depression of a lever would cause the item to be photographed onto the next blank space in a section of the memex film. the memex would become "'a sort of mechanized private file and library'. it would use microfilm storage, dry photography, and analog computing to give postwar scholars access to a huge, i
Classification_systems History_of_computing History_of_humanacomputer_interaction History_of_the_Internet Humanacomputer_interaction Hypertext Information_science Multimodal_interaction Science_studies Scientific_revolution