“Consider a future 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.”

The owner of the memex, let us say, is interested in the origin and properties

of the bow and arrow. Specifically he is studying why the short Turkish bow was

apparently superior to the English long bow in the skirmishes of the Crusades.

He has dozens of possibly pertinent books and articles in his memex. First he

runs through an encyclopedia, finds an... See more