Science-fiction writers, like Isaac Asimov (I, Robot) in the 1940’s and Arthur C Clarke (2001 A Space Odyssey) in the 1960’s, published stories that projected how humankind and our world might be fifty-years ahead of their time. But of course, we’re now seeing things once dreamed of as science-fiction unfold on what seems like an almost daily basis.
Our ‘virtual revolution’ is driven by internet-related technologies and in one instance by thinking that was arguably first outlined by Vannevar Bush (no relation to George W, by the way) in 1945. He imagined flat TV-like screens embedded in desks which could literally access content from the greatest libraries in the world ~ giving anyone and everyone access to ‘all’ written human knowledge.
In his own words, published in The Atlantic Magazine* (July 1945) under the title ‘As We May Think’, he suggested…
“Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and, to coin one at random, “memex” will do.
A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.
It consists of a desk, and while it can presumably be operated from a distance, it is primarily the piece of furniture at which he works. On the top are slanting translucent screens, on which material can be projected for convenient reading. There is a keyboard, and sets of buttons and levers. Otherwise it looks like an ordinary desk.
In one end is the stored material. The matter of bulk is well taken care of by improved microfilm. Only a small part of the interior of the memex is devoted to storage, the rest to mechanism. Yet if the user inserted 5000 pages of material a day it would take him hundreds of years to fill the repository, so he can be profligate and enter material freely.”
(Although he talks about the use of computer machines elsewhere in the full article, he presupposes that microfilm rather than digitized data would be the most effective storage platform. Give the guy a break! He had an extremely busy war!)
Anyway, perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn then that his ideas are said to have influenced and inspired early developments at Apple Computers Inc**. So it was inevitable that Apple would launch the iPad…Right?
Following it’s trailblazing iPhone, the iPod and iTunes, this latest offering (although it’s not the only ‘tablet’ device recently launched into the marketplace) may at last truly fulfill ‘Dr. Vannevar Bush’s Prophecy’. A (wireless) device that you can pretty much sit and read anywhere and that gives you access to a ‘world of multi-faceted and inter-related information’.
But it won’t all be work, work, work, Dr. Bush. No Sir.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4PBTe-yC6M&feature=related
And to reinforce that point, last week Condé Nast announced it will create Apple iPad versions of its Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Glamour magazines. Other titles from the Condé Nast stable that might follow could include; Vogue, Condé Nast Traveller, W and Gourmet.
An iPad version of GQ will be ready next month (April) shortly after Apple begins shipping its first tablet computers later this month, and will be sold via iTunes.
How the advertising will be presented on the iPad is a key concern for Condé Nast and it is looking at ideas such as how users might be able to click through from an ad straight to an e-commerce store.
So ‘the future’ will be available from $499 at an Apple store near you from 03 April (If you live in the US and sometime towards the end of April for those of us in the UK).
* http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/as-we-may-think/3881/1/
** Insanely Great by Steven Levy (The story of Apple’s early days)
http://www.amazon.com/Insanely-Great-Macintosh-Computer-Everything/dp/0140291776
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