The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Digital Research Initiative

"Memex"
A hypothetical information
retrieval and annotation system.


The human mind "operates by association."
Memex was a conceptual machine that could store vast amounts of information and enabled users to create information trails consisting of links of related texts and illustrations stored and used for future reference. Bush even conceptualized "memex" to tame the then-unknown problem of information overload by enhancing human memory (hence its name).




“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.”


"Compression is important, however, when it comes to costs. The material for the microfilm Britannica would cost a nickel, and it could be mailed anywhere for a cent … The entire material of the Britannica in reduced microfilm form would go on a sheet eight and one-half by eleven inches."

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This site last updated September 7, 2002