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"He [mankind] has built a civilization so complex that he needs to mechanize his records more fully if he is to push his experiment to its logical conclusion and not merely become bogged down part way there by overtaxing his limited memory."
Illustration of the Memex

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Vannevar Bush | Memex <1945>

Vannevar Bush rose to prominence during World War II as chief scientific advisor to Franklin Roosevelt and director of the government's Office of Scientific Research and Development, where he supervised the research that led to the creation of the atomic bomb and other military technologies. His contribution to the evolution of the computer ranges far and wide: from the invention in 1930 of the Differential Analyzer, one of the first automatic electronic computers, to his concept of the Memex, the prototypical hypermedia machine.

In 1945 the Atlantic Monthly invited Bush to contribute an article on this theme, and the result was the landmark essay, As We May Think. He used this high profile forum to propose a solution to what he considered the paramount challenge of the day: how information would be gathered, stored, and accessed in an increasingly information-saturated world. This article had a profound influence on the scientists and theorists responsible for the evolution of the personal computer and the Internet.