Vannevar Bush’s 1945 essay “As We May Think” described the Memex, a mechanical desk that contained entire libraries allowing its owner to create and share lasting trails of knowledge with colleagues. This talk begins with the analog computers and microfilm readers that led to this speculative essay and how those ideas influenced digital computing pioneers in the 1960-70s: Doug Engelbart — the inventor of personal workstation, Ted Nelson — the creator of hypertext and visions of digital world containing all the world’s literature, and Alan Kay — whose DynaBook vision foreshadowed the form factors and user interface we carry around in our backpacks and pockets today.
[slideshare id=58483229&doc=01introtohypertext-2016-160219221748]