Second web writing assignment

The internet far exceeds the potential capabilities of the Memex device described by Vannevar Bush. Not only is it a database of infinite proportions, it provides revolutionary new methods of communication and information sharing. The internet is a collection of thousands if not millions of Memex like devices connected through a global network of satellites and phone cables. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s fear that new technological advances can have negative effects on society are not unfounded. The internet, more so than any invention in history, has the potential to revolutionize the way society communicates and functions.
As far back as the 1940's, Vannevar Bush saw the need for some new method of organizing and storing information. Thousands of years of recorded human history has resulted in mountains of material that are nearly impossible to wade through without some new form of indexing. The Memex device that he described would not only condense this wealth of knowledge into a area the size of a desk, it would also provide a way to efficiently search the database (Bush 1). Bush realized that traditional methods of organizing information in libraries alphabetically and numerically were far to cumbersome. He proposed a new method called “associative indexing”. A search of one topic would also bring up several related topics in a way similar to how the human brain operates (Bush 1). This is precisely how internet search engines work today. When a search is preformed millions of pages are scanned for key words. The results are then listed in order of relevance. The internet improves upon Bush’s ideas by allowing for customizable search options. We have the ability to search for complete phrases as well as the capacity to exclude certain words or names from our search. One of the advantages of the Memex device described by Bush is for a person to have, “the privilege of forgetting the manifold things he does not need to have immediately at hand, with some assurance that he can find them again if they prove important.” (Bush 1) Anyone familiar with the internet today knows how to use the “favorites” function. This saves a webpage url into an organized list that can be easily consulted at a later time.


Bush thought the Memex should not only be a repository for material created by others, but that the owner of the device should have the ability to insert his own writings and photographs. These new additions could be shared by printing out a copy and handing them to a friend who could then insert that material into his own Memex (Bush 1). He never could have dreamed that information could be shared instantly between machines on opposite sides of the world. Bush also thought the Memex would be limited to text and photographic information. He had no idea that in the future people would have the ability to share music, audio files, video, and computer software as easily as text or pictures.
Blogging is a new form of internet communication. It allows users to upload any information or material that they desire to a worldwide network. One doesn’t even need to own a computer to do this. The web can be accessed through any number of locations like libraries and cafes that have public computers. When a person does a web search for a topic, blogs are scanned as well as regular websites by search engines. If the information in your blog is relevant to the search topic, it will appear in the list of results. Blogs make it possible for anyone with a basic knowledge of computers to make contributions to the web. It is no longer something that only people with money and extensive computer programing knowledge can do.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, although born decades before Bush, was concerned that advances in technology are not always healthy for society. In his essay, “Fire Worship”, he talks about how the replacement of traditional open hearth fireplaces by wood stoves caused a breakdown in communication between families. No longer did all the members of a house have to crowd around the fireplace during the winter, they could enjoy the same heat in any room with a stove (Hawthorne 1). The internet has the ability to transform social intercourse much more dramatically than the adoption of the wood stove. People can have instant communication with others all around the globe. Text messaging, email, webcams, and blogs allow an unprecedented access to a worldwide community. These innovations surely are wonderful new tools for communication, however the very real possibility exists that as we focus on global communication we may loose the ability to communicate with those closest to us. Internet communication is easier than face to face or telephone communication. Important social skills like eye contact, patience, and the ability to vocalize your thoughts in a clear and easy to understand manner are not necessary for internet discourse. Reflecting on the adoption of the wood stove, Hawthorne remarks that, “...the effects will be more perceptible on our children, and the generations that shall succeed them, than on ourselves.” (Hawthorne 1) This is true today of the internet. As a new generation of children are raised with an ever increasingly open access to the internet, we may see a dramatic change in person to person social interaction. There needs to be a healthy balance between real life and online communication. We need to use the new options that the internet provides to enhance our ability to relate to one another rather than have it breakdown our social relationships.



Bush, Vannevar. "As We May Think." The Atlantic Monthly July 1945. 13 Sept 2007. http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/%7Educhier/pub/vbush/vbush-all.shtml

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Fire Worship." Mosses From an Old Manse.1854. Eldritch Press. 13 Sept 2007. http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/fw.html