Bush 1945

Bush, "As We May Think" (1945)

Part 1

War is over; scientists need new task

What has been the contribution of the new instruments?

"Increased his control of his material environment"

"Growing mountain of research" -- researcher is bogged down by information; can't keep up with it all -- "publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record"

Leibniz once invented a calculating machine but "the economics of the situation were against it: the labor involved in constructing it, before the days of mass

production, exceeded the labor to be saved by its use, since all it could accomplish could be duplicated by sufficient use of pencil and paper"

Babbage couldn't produce his arithmetical machine -- "construction and maintenance costs were then too heavy"