Technology is more and more embedded in everyday life, but it hasn't always been this way. Only 50 years ago people regarded technology as something only scientists and technicians dealt with. 40 years ago reaching the Moon was just becoming a reality. 30 years ago just a few people had access to a computer. 20 years ago programming was something just a few could understand. 10 years ago we were just learning how to use the Internet. 5 years ago no one knew what wikis and blogs were, nor how to use them. And so it goes. We can choose to ignore it, we can try and keep up-to-date, but there is no escaping it.
The fact that Vannevar Bush could foresee many of the major developments in technology and the way we would use them is still a huge achievement. Many of the actual developments can be tracked to this article, "As we may think", and its place in technology and history is remarkable. We can't undrstand the future if we don't look back and try and understand the past.
What are some of the technologies envisioned in this article, and how is that vision different to today's version of it? Why? What do you think, or expect, the future will bring?
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USB Flash drive:
It use today in everyday life and business is to transport and store data. The advantage is that a flash drive is small and more robust than a CD or an external hard drive.
Hypertext
A modified form of the original is used in the internet, to access certain locations (computers, etc.)...
Many things Vannevar Bush described on his article, "As We May Think" have become true and have been also improved. The way we use them in some way is really similar to what he described, but in other situations we have given them a better use.
Scanners:
We use them to transform data, pictures, books, documents, etc in physical or hard form into a digital form.
We basically use scanners as Bush described it. As a device that will be on top of the computer and everytime you put a document or a picture in a certain place it will be like photographed and stored. the only difference i find is that maybe we dont always put them on top of the computer.
Single lens relex camera
It is commonly used while people travel or hang out with friends. Being widely used by professional photographer for shoting models , filming and so on.
Fax machine
Almost every business now uses fax machine especially multinationals where they are not located in the same place. It allows them to transferring information in a fast and cheaper way,instead of posts.
Database management system: It is a computer software that manages databases.It is able to use any of the different database models, such as the network model or relational model. In large systems, a database management system allows users to store and retrieve data in an organized way.
Nowadays Database Management System is essential for almost every business. Very Usefull to keep information about the different customers of certain area, which helps a lot to organize information and keep track of everyone.
Search Engines: this is by today perhaps one of the most important serviecs on the Internet. Websites as Google does not only index "all" the information online into a simple search, it is also today one of the most important marketplaces for any global company.
I believe that this area, and then mainly Google will keep on growing, and probably the implications in the daily business of any company will be larger.
The way that Mr Bush explains "search engines" also implicates the use of todays computer robots or Bot's. He discuss how all the indexed information should be stored so it can be traced...
To understand what the Google "robot/bot" does is and how you can use it as a company is extremely important and will become even more central for companies marketingdepartments. Companies has to be able to addequatly use and work with SEO (search engine optimizing) to keep up with the rest.
Data terminal desk:
It is used in everyday life and especially in the terminals of the airports.
A data terminal for use with a viewing screen and comprising a holder for a keyboard, the holder being slidable in a direction perpendicular to a back of the desk between a working position with the keyboard holder in a recess in a front part of a desk top of the desk and a rest position with the keyboard holder closer to the back and beneath the desk top; a removable cover covering the recess in the rest position and removable from the rest position of the keyboard holder covered by a removable flap and through which opening the keyboard is operationally accessible in the rest position thereby leaving a substantial portion of the desk top clear for working space.
Automatic Speech Recognition:
ASR is being developed in today's life by the health care sector, where they are trying to implement speech recognition for the medical documentation process.
ASR is also being used by the military (especially in the fighter aircrafts), people with disabilities (for example where people are having problems using their hands), in helicopters, and in telephony etc.
V. Bush is describing in the article that he thought the universal languages did not fitted the technique for transmitting and recording speech at that time. But as the research and the use of the ASR is developing today, the language is and will probably become even better to be able to transmit and recording speech.
Wikipedia
Exactly as described by V. Bush Wikipedia is an encyclopedia with a 'mesh of associative trails running through' it. (These are the blue links you find in any Wikipedia entry that take you to the next entry and so on.)
As Wikipedia's by now over 12 million articles do not undergo a review process, the site has been much criticized regarding bias, accuracy and reliability of its contents.
Nonetheless, Wikipedia is a marvelous example of user-generated content and online collaboration of ‘volunteers’. This technology is ideally being used in everyday life as a reference point for further investigation and research on any given topic. Although the site is ‘non-commercial’, unlike Facebook for example you cannot purchase advertising space on Wikipedia, companies use the site to create profiles of themselves.
Wikipedia lives on donations, grants and the contributions of a few corporate sponsors who are mentioned on the ‘Wikimedia Benefactors’ site (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Benefactors).
The Digital Camera
Since V. Bush’s ideas originated from a mechanical approach, today’s digital cameras are different from what he envisioned in that they do not make use of dyes or ammonia gas. However, they fulfill his vision in that they enable us to ’snap the camera and to look at the picture immediately.’
Digital cameras are so widely used that one can neither imagine everyday nor corporate life to exist without them. Pictures taken with digital cameras are used in the business world during the development stage of a product, just as much as for marketing purposes.
A database is a collection of information that is organized so that it can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. In one view, databases can be classified according to types of content: bibliographic, full-text, numeric, and images.
In computing, databases are sometimes classified according to their organizational approach. The most prevalent approach is the relational database, a tabular database in which data is defined so that it can be reorganized and accessed in a number of different ways.
Wearable computers
Vannevar Bush is considered to be one of the first that mentioned the possibility of developing the portable computer, however he did not predict something extraordinary. Mechanizms were already wearable (like watches, etc) so there was nothing surprising that Bush thought that you can 'wear' more advanced technologies. What he did not predict is how the wearable computing will develop. His concept of wearable computers limited to the devices used by scientists, or to cameras and recordings that will be moving together with people without requiring them to hold them. However, he could not predict that wearable computers will cover things like smart clothes or smart walls. Wearable computing took a step forward from what Bush was thinking about - from highly technological category into something that refers to people everyday life - their clothes, houses, hobbies, etc. And above all, he did not consider that the "memex" that he was thinking about will not stay as a descktop computer but that this type of advanced machine will be put into something that do not need cables or electricity source and can be carried everywhere with its user.
http://blonking.blogspot.com/2009/02/color-changing-wall-picture-day-24.html
I cannot post it on flickr so you can check it out here - wall changing color (I'm not sure if it's not the change of light color over it but maybe its the wall itself that generates the light)
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