Communication between individuals has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual. A record if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted. It needs compression, and not only to make and store a record but also be able to consult it, and this aspect of the matter comes later. To make the record, we now push a pencil or tap a typewriter. Then comes the process of digestion and correction, followed by an intricate process of typesetting, printing, and distribution, but the elements are all present if he wishes to have his talk directly produce a typed record. For example, there is World Fair a machine called a Voder.
Much needs to occur, however, between the collection of data and observations, the extraction of parallel material from the existing record, and the final insertion of new material into the general body of the common record. The repetitive processes of thought are not confined however, to matters of arithmetic and statistics. In fact, every time one combines and records facts in accordance with established logical processes. If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get far in our understanding of the physical world. Whenever logical processes of thought are employed there is an opportunity for the machine. A strange fact in that most logical field, probably positional, a new symbolism must apparently precede the reduction of mathematical transformations to machine processes. The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts.Items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory, but the speed of action is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature. Man cannot hope fully to duplicate this mental process artificially, but he certainly ought to be able to learn from it. "Memex" will do this. 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. There is, of course, provision for consultation of the record by the usual scheme of indexing. If the user wishes to consult a certain book, he taps its code on the keyboard, and the title page of the book promptly appears before him, projected onto one of his viewing positions. Science may implement the ways in which man produces, stores, and consults the record of the race. Presumably man's spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems.
