As Computers May Think

According to Vannevar Bush’s 1945 As We May Think

Selection, by association, rather than indexing, may yet be mechanized. One cannot hope thus to equal the speed and flexibility with which the mind follows an associative trail, but it should be possible to beat the mind decisively in regard to the permanence and clarity of the items resurrected from storage.

Indexing makes me think of index cards and Dewy Decimal systems. The Internet makes me think of Myspace, Facebook, Gmail, and blogging, all which have associative properties to them. Computer files make me think of indexing as well, involved storage of knowledge that a human could not retain. And just then I’ve been associating, in a way a computer could not do. How far technology has come is impressive, especially thinking about the Internet’s ability to link interests of someone together. Plug a few bands you like into Rhapsody and it gives you more you are likely to be interested with. The Hype Machine compiles all sorts of music blogs Mp3’s onto their homepage and has a link to spy on different parts of the country to see what other people are listening to. I don’t even know if it has to be said, but Bush was way ahead of his time.

Visions of the Future

One of the key reasons for new inventions is to either create something new, or create something that makes life processes easier.  With this in mind, it goes without saying that no matter how advanced technology gets, there will always been future technology to supplant or surpass it.  Vannevar Bush, in an article from 1945 entitled “As We May Think”, showed this to be true in post WWII times.

Now back then, there was not the same amount of technology we have today.  But Bush was still able to have the foresight to muse about the ways that technology could grow and expand.  For instance, when Bush is talking about the camera, “Certainly progress in photography is not going to stop. Faster material and lenses, more automatic cameras, finer-grained sensitive compounds to allow an extension of the minicamera idea, are all imminent. Let us project this trend ahead to a logical, if not inevitable, outcome.”  To have someone back in 1945 describe the potential outcome of future technologies is astounding.  Well, maybe more astounding in Bush’s case as he did not think of something so far fetched as flying cars, or teleportation machines.  He analyzed it in a practical manner.

This is my vision..

We can take a look at this line of thinking and apply it to our own lives and interactions with technology.  In my lifetime, I’ve already seen cameras go from big, bulky machines to something that can fit inside your pocket.  Now, with cameras attached to cell phones, it shouldn’t be long before they can be as small as a lapel pin (which probably already exist).  Especially in today’s climate with gas prices being an outrageous amount, we will see technology in our cars expand to incorporate new types of fuel.  Whatever the case may be, we seem to always have visions of the future when it comes to technology.  We can only hope that some of them come true.

I KNEW It! Broccoli IS Gross

This is “Unfit for Print.” I’m going to take some liberty here:

Yeah that’s right. Broccoli.

Think that’s weird? Look closer.

I can’t decide if it’s brilliant or down right creepy. Apparently, this Cascadian Farms company thought it would be funny to superimpose faces on the bag of their product. If you ask me, someone was hitting the ganga in that boardroom.

But what’s even more amazing? This is real. (Or so these people say)

Trusting that those bloggers aren’t just entertaining my gullability, I’m going to say that this officialy made my night.

-Ryan