As We May Think By VANNEVAR BUSH

This reading was disillusioning in many ways, for me. Firstly, it proved to me how very much I have yet to learn about the technology of the past, and even our current technology. I don't know how to hope to gain anything about the technology of our time without seeing the precursors to it, and Bush speaks far ahead of his time on many subjects. Secondly, it reminds us as artists, designers, aesthetic technicians and engineers, that we have to keep our minds open to things that seem extreme or ridiculous for the times. Mislabeling such goals for the future as just "Sci-fi" writing is a gross misrepresentation, because as Vannevar Bush proves, there is a professional and scientific way of approaching such broad, powerful subjects, and it is methodical and neat. He simply bases the way technology will evolve based on how technology has evolved. I am interested to pursue more writings by Bush and artists and designers of his time, in the hopes of more fully understanding the history, prejudices, and philosophies that constructed our technology.