The "memex" was a theoretical analog computer described by the scientist and engineer Vannevar Bush in the 1945 The Atlantic Monthly article "As We May Think." The word was a contraction of "memory extender" . Bush described the device as electronically linked to a library and able to display books and films from the library, and further able to automatically follow references from these to the work referenced. This idea, which directly influenced computer pioneer Douglas Engelbart, led to Ted Nelson's groundbreaking work in concepts of hypermedia and hypertext.

The memex did more than offer linked information to a user. It was a tool for establishing links as well as following them. The technology used would have been a combination of electromechanical controls and microfilm cameras and readers, all integrated in a large desk. Most of the microfilm library would have been contained within the desk itself, with the option of adding or removing microfilm reels at will. It could also be used without linking, to generate information on microfilm, by taking photos from paper or from a touch sensitive translucent screen.

In a way then the memex desk was more than an hypertext machine. It was a microfilm based precursor to the personal computer. The November 1945 Life magazine article which showed the first illustrations of what the memex desk http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/Secondary.html could look like also showed illustrations of a head mounted camera, which a scientist could wear while doing experiments, and of a typewriter capable of voice recognition and of reading back the text by speech synthesis. Taken together, these memex machines were probably the earliest practical description of what we would call today the Office of the future.

The system had no provision for an automatic search function or for some form of universal metadata scheme such as a standard library classification or an hypertext element set such as the Dublin core. The user was expected to develop an idiosyncratic code whose significance would be noted in handwriting in a personal code book. The user would index each entry, whether they be new images, annotated text or images, manuscripts, typescripts, etc. By consulting the personal code book it would be possible to retrace annotated or generated pages.

The memex served as inspiration for Microsoft Research 's Gordon Bell's project, MyLifeBits , a database-powered digital store of photographs, documents, communications and even web-browsing statistics of Bell, searchable, annotated and indexed. This ongoing project attempts to capture a lifetime worth of experiences as automatically as possible for future use and reference with ease.

External link

• Gordon Bell's MyLifeBits, inspired by the memex http://research.microsoft.com/barc/mediapresence/MyLifeBits.aspx