Comments on Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think” (1945) Striking to me were the moments when Bush expressed a profound anti-humanism, and betrayed a general suspicion of human cultural institutions. For instance, he affirms: “Our present languages are not especially adapted to this sort of mechanization, it is true. It is strange that the inventors … Continue reading The Primacy of the Machine, or Bush’s anti-humanism
For our second meeting of the New Media Seminar I’m participating in, we were assigned to read Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think” and to blog about a meaningful nugget/passage. Some things that stand out for me about the text is the ways in which Bush was concerned with several dimensions with regards to technological…
“Before the pervasive influence of network broadcasting, federal regulation, and commercial homogenization, the radio dial was an instrument of fantastic sweep and power, which could…
I’ve just finished reading Vannevar Bush’s 1945 article in the Atlantic Monthly, “As We May Think,” which makes some prescient predictions about the future of computing, science and industry in the wake of the massively destructive bombs brought to life during World War II by some of the brightest scientists of that generation. A great many […]
The Internet has created opportunities and perils. We have mountains of data, but few individuals can tackle the mountains with anything better than a sand shovel. These reams of data are enticing for social scientists such as myself—with whole chat rooms of strangers to interview, millions of comment threads to assess, we have seemingly unlimited new avenues to […]
“…truly significant attainments become lost in the mass of the inconsequential.” Why did this nugget resonate with me? It resonated with me because I kind of feel like here we are again. Bogged down with the availability of so much information, now literally at our fingertips… how do we sort through it all. Bush wrote […]
This is the first post for a New Media Seminar that I am participating in at Virginia Tech. The main site for this seminar includes comments on weekly readings. Seminar Twitter Hashtag: #vtnmss15. Reading: “As We May Think” by Vannevar Bush, Atlantic Monthly, 176(1):101-108. (July 1945). Many of the passages in Vannevar Bush’s article As We […]
It is random acts of kindness week!! Consider doing a random (or intentional) act of kindness, take a pic, and post on your blog (and anywhere else you want)!!!
Very cool TED talk about the key to long term happiness… something to think about. http://www.upworthy.com/brilliant-harvard-psychologist-explains-how-to-achieve-long-term-happiness-in-this-popular-ted-talk?c=ufb1