# As We May Think

> By Dr. Vannevar Bush (1945). Originally published in *The Atlantic Monthly*, Vol. 176, No. 1, pp. 101–108, July 1945.
> Digital Reading Edition: https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/
> Unabridged Full Text: https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/llms-full.txt

The seminal essay introducing the **Memex** (memory extender) and the foundational concept of **associative trails**, which directly inspired the invention of the computer mouse, multiple windows, hypertext, personal computing, and the World Wide Web.

Writing at the close of World War II as Director of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), Vannevar Bush urged scientists to shift from instruments of destruction to instruments that extend the powers of the human mind and make the bewildering store of human knowledge accessible and consultative.

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## 🧭 Structure & Section Directory

- [Editor’s Foreword](https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/#sec-foreword): The original editorial introduction from *The Atlantic Monthly* (July 1945), comparing Bush’s peacetime call to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1837 address "The American Scholar."
- [Prologue: A Scientist’s War and What Comes Next](https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/#sec-prologue): The postwar turning point for scientists; the physicists who left academic pursuits must now find objectives worthy of their best.
- [1. The Mountain of Research](https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/#sec-1): The explosion of specialized publication; Mendel’s lost genetics; past calculating engines (Leibniz, Babbage); mass production of cheap, reliable thermionic tubes and complex devices.
- [2. Extending the Record: Photography & Compression](https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/#sec-2): Forehead walnut camera (3mm square exposures in full color); dry photography (diazo dyes, facsimile, electron beam in vacuum); microphotography reducing bulk by a factor of 10,000; the entire *Encyclopaedia Britannica* on a matchbox or single 8.5×11 sheet.
- [3. Speech, Stenography & Arithmetical Engines](https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/#sec-3): Direct speech-to-text dictation (Voder, Vocoder, stenotype); the mobile field investigator unanchored; Hollerith punched cards; electrical thermionic counting at 100,000/sec; high-speed automated calculation.
- [4. Mechanizing Higher Analysis & Logic](https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/#sec-4): Distinguishing creative thought from repetitive thought; equation solvers, differential analyzers, and tide harmonic synthesizers; symbolic logic on a high plane.
- [5. Logic Machines & The Problem of Selection](https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/#sec-5): Relational transformation machines; department store charge account cards; automatic telephone exchange crossbar selection; the inherent inadequacy of hierarchical, subclass indexing.
- [6. Selection by Association & The Memex Desk](https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/#sec-6): The human mind operates by association; introducing the **Memex desk** with dual slanting translucent projection screens, transparent dry-photography platen scanner, rapid page-turning levers, internal microfilm repository, and indexed code spaces.
- [7. Associative Trails: Building & Linking Knowledge](https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/#sec-7): The essential feature of the Memex: tying two items together permanently with photocell dot codes; case study of an associative trail on the Turkish bow vs. English longbow; branching side trails; duplicating and sharing trail microfilm with colleagues.
- [8. The Web of Knowledge, Direct Neural Paths & The Destiny of Man](https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/#sec-8): Encyclopedias with pre-built meshes of associative trails; the new profession of "trail blazers"; direct sensory and bio-electrical transmission (optic nerve induction, typist arm nerves, EEG brain traces, bone conduction); elevating the human spirit and encompassing the wisdom of the human race.
- [Colophon & Historical Notes](https://spinchange.github.io/as-we-may-think/#sec-colophon): Publication history, textual fidelity, direct lineage to Douglas Engelbart (NLS, mouse), Ted Nelson (hypertext, Xanadu), and Tim Berners-Lee (World Wide Web), plus public domain copyright details.

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## 💬 Key Verbatim Quotations

> “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, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain.” (§6)

> “Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and to coin one at random, ‘memex’ will do. 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. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.” (§6)

> “The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, and the means we use for threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships.” (§1)

> “There is a new profession of trail blazers, those who find delight in the task of establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record.” (§8)

> “Presumably man’s spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems... His excursion may be more enjoyable if he can reacquire the privilege of forgetting the manifold things he does not need to have immediately at hand, with some assurance that he can find them again if they prove important.” (§8)

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## 📚 Academic Citations

### Chicago
Bush, Vannevar. "As We May Think." *The Atlantic Monthly* 176, no. 1 (July 1945): 101–108.

### APA (7th ed.)
Bush, V. (1945). As We May Think. *The Atlantic Monthly*, 176(1), 101–108.

### MLA (9th ed.)
Bush, Vannevar. "As We May Think." *The Atlantic Monthly*, vol. 176, no. 1, July 1945, pp. 101–108.

### BibTeX
```bibtex
@article{bush1945aswemaythink,
  title={As We May Think},
  author={Bush, Vannevar},
  journal={The Atlantic Monthly},
  volume={176},
  number={1},
  pages={101--108},
  year={1945},
  month={July}
}
```