Week 2.2 Readings Thoughts??

Hitler killed himself and then the A bomb was dropped. That was 1945!

Somewhat out of the ordinary, we were prescribed a reading that was originally written before the 1980s.

The author, Vannevar Bush, attempts to predict the influx of technology that is to come over the following decades. He also comments on the massive potential of not only the the pointer needed for a facsimile transmission but record keeping database of the punch card (Which assisted in the record keeping of the Nazi regime).

Bush compares the  technologies that are streamed, to the technologies that are based on a chemical reaction. He analysises the facsimile transaction as advantageous because the scene can be replicated in a different location, unlike a standard camera, but admits that the camera quality is the more desirable reproduction.

He says that he would be a brave man to claim that the ‘pointer’ would be a poor quality reproduction forever, but conceded that the even though the technology would improve, that the future would be in compressing, storing and reproducing books and information and in that respect Bush predicted accurately…..the internet.

His starting point questions the possibilities of being able to condense whole encyclopaedias to the size of a matchbox with little cost and possible magnification technology available to use them again.

Overall, Bush’s predictions are rather accurate and ahead of his time. (It is also a little surreal digesting a social commentary piece from 1945)