Week 4 – Readings

Bush Vannevar begins his discussion by asking, “Of what lasting benefit  has been man’s use of science and of the new instruments which his research brought into existence?”

Firstly, we have more control over our material environment such as superior food, clothing, housing and shelter as well as security.

Scientific developments and technologies have allowed us to better understand our biological processes and fight disease and illness and through illuminating the relationship between physiological and psychological functions, improve mental health.

And I guess most relevant to this subject, science has provided swift communication tools and a platform for recording ideas so that knowledge will endure beyond the life of any one person. We can continue to evolve and learn from our predecessors through recorded text and images.

He talks about the origins of composite technologies such as the keyboard and movie camera, an assembly of parts once declared too expense to produce, “The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it.”

Hypermedia and The Xanadu System

I have to say, I appreciated the warning by Theodor Holm Nelson at the start of his article that read “You may or may not feel that you understand it fully.” I did feel out of my depth reading through his ideas, but what shone through was how ahead of its time this concept was.

Nelson coined the term Hypertext and explains it simply to mean, “non-sequential writing text that branches and allows choices to the reader, best read at an interactive screen.” It works by chunking text together and connecting it with different pathways offered to the reader.

He wanted to use hypertext as the most general form of writing to bring literature, art, science and civilization to new heights through unification.The Xanadu System is a small computer program designed for the universal storage of all interactive media and data.

Thinking about how we use the computer network today to communicate, publish, research and store information – it’s difficult to imagine any other way. It’s a network that promotes the coexistence and resolution of many viewpoints through sharing comments and viewpoints.

“THE FUTURE IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE”