Differences
This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.
| Next revision | Previous revision | ||
| man-who-imagined-the-internet-before-computers-existed [2026/07/28 19:12] – created cynic | man-who-imagined-the-internet-before-computers-existed [2026/08/10 21:45] (current) – cynic | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Line 15: | Line 15: | ||
| ==== The Memex inspired hypertext ==== | ==== The Memex inspired hypertext ==== | ||
| - | |||
| Maybe you've heard the story. | Maybe you've heard the story. | ||
| Line 21: | Line 20: | ||
| The Memex inspired hypertext. | The Memex inspired hypertext. | ||
| - | Hypertext inspired the World Wide Web. | + | Hypertext inspired the World Wide Web. Therefore, Bush invented the web. |
| - | Therefore, Bush invented the web. | + | Nice story. Neat story. Wrong story. |
| - | + | ||
| - | Nice story. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Neat story. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Wrong story. | + | |
| Because the Memex wasn't the web. | Because the Memex wasn't the web. | ||
| - | It wasn't the internet. | + | It wasn't the internet. It wasn't even a computer. |
| - | + | ||
| - | It wasn't even a computer. | + | |
| But here's where things get interesting... | But here's where things get interesting... | ||
| Line 71: | Line 62: | ||
| I’ve seen the fads come and go, I've seen the " | I’ve seen the fads come and go, I've seen the " | ||
| - | It’s so much easier to tell a story about one "great man" with a vision than it is to talk about the teams of engineers, the government grants, and the thousands of failures it actually took to get us here. They use the Memex to claim that our current tech structure—all-powerful, | + | It’s so much easier to tell a story about one "great man" with a vision than it is to talk about the teams of engineers, the government grants, and the thousands of failures it actually took to get us here. They use the Memex to claim that our current tech structure—all-powerful, |
| - | + | ||
| - | It’s lazy. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Because Bush imagined a machine that could organize knowledge. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | The next visionary imagined something far more radical. | + | |
| - | He imagined computers that people would actually interact with. | ||
| - | Almost as if computers and people could form a partnership. | + | ==== Vannevar Bush imagined |
| - | In the early 1960s, that idea sounded completely insane. | + | Vannevar Bush and the Memex: Did He Really Invent the Internet? |
| - | The man who proposed it called it " | + | {{ youtube> |
| - | He described a future where computers around the world were connected together, sharing information and resources. | ||
| - | He called it the Intergalactic Computer Network. | + | ---- |
| - | No, he wasn't talking about aliens. | ||
| - | But he was imagining something that looked suspiciously like the modern internet. | ||
| - | Next time, we'll meet J. C. R. Licklider, the dreamer who convinced a generation of engineers to stop thinking about computers as machines—and start thinking about them as networks. | ||
| - | And that's where our story really begins. | ||
Sorry if some of the pages having missing graphics or a bookmarked page is missing. We are migrating our site over to DokuWiki from Drupal. The last major overhaul of our site was in 2016, and we were due for some freshening up.
The collection of material for the study of geek history dates back to my early days in technology as far back as the 1970s. You will find specific footnotes and references on many pages with links to current websites. Anytime a claim is made, or a fact is stated from a website or blog that does not appear to have firsthand knowledge of the subject I make a note to follow up on it. I can assure you that anything I have written is based on verification of facts from a source as close to the events and individuals as possible or multiple sources of information from leading publications or references.