Microsoft SenseCam – a tribute to Vannevar Bush
@MarcHolmes and @SaraAllison have just been talking about the Microsoft SenseCam, a device that is being used by the Microsoft MyLifeBits project.
SenseCam – read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SenseCam
The reference to this reminds me of this project's inspriation, the "Memex", a device written about by Vanevar Bush way back in 1945. Bush was a scientific adviser to the American government and he wrote a fantastic article just after the second world war titled "As we may think" about the role of scientists in post war years. In this he outlines how the role of scientists changed in order to maximise the USA's military strength, how men and women had been building weapons, not working on the good, progressive sciences that they had previously been concentrating on before the war. A great article and well worth a read, an extract here about the "memex":
A device for individual use could store all informations and communications, expanding the memory. Lets call it the "memex". It looks like a desk with slanted screens, one can enter all sorts of writings (letters, newspapers, books), which arrive directly in microfilm format or are being photographed in place, they are stored inside. The stored pages can be called by a mnemonic code and browsed at different speeds. It is possible to take marginal notes and do comments at every point.
Vanevar Bush, As we may think, 1945.
Read Bush's full article here, truly inspiring: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm