# As We May Think **Author:** Vannevar Bush **Published:** 10 September 1945 (_Life_ magazine, condensed from _The Atlantic_, July 1945) **Length:** 28 mins (7,183 words, Reader scan including surrounding magazine material) ## In Summary Writing at the end of the Second World War, Vannevar Bush considers how technologies might help people navigate rapidly expanding scientific knowledge. He envisages developments in photography, microfilm, speech recognition and automated calculation, culminating in the _Memex_, a hypothetical machine for storing and retrieving interconnected records. Rather than relying solely on conventional classification, users could construct associative trails reflecting their thinking. Bush imagines technology extending human memory and enquiry while distinguishing mechanical information processing from mature, creative thought. **Source:** [https://read.readwise.io/read/01jqp9snk55jax49anawdjpwex](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jqp9snk55jax49anawdjpwex) ## What might this mean for us? Could Electric Dreams' object-led archive function as a contemporary form of associative wayfinding, connecting historical technologies, creative practices and emerging research? Bush's Memex provides a historical perspective on organising knowledge around relationships rather than fixed categories. How might AI help reveal connections while preserving the human judgement, curiosity and interpretive agency through which meaningful trails are created? ## Links in this reading - _[As We May Think](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jqp9snk55jax49anawdjpwex)_[, illustrated](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jqp9snk55jax49anawdjpwex) _[Life](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jqp9snk55jax49anawdjpwex)_ [magazine edition, Readwise Reader](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jqp9snk55jax49anawdjpwex)