MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
"As We May Think" --
A Celebration of Vannevar Bush's 1945 Vision,
An Examination of What Has Been Accomplished,
and What Remains to Be Done
Thursday, October 12 and Friday, October 13, 1995
Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center
Vannevar Bush
This year marks the 50th anniversary of
Vannevar Bush's landmark paper, "As We May Think," published first in
the Atlantic Monthly and subsequently in Life magazine. In honor of
Dr. Bush's vision this research symposium is being held at MIT, his
academic home.
Attendance
Attendance at the symposium is by invitation. The attendance fee is $250 and there is a $50 student rate. Refer to the invitation for details.
Broadcasting
The Symposium will be broadcast via the Internet Multicast system MBone. Information about MBone
The Symposium will also be broadcast over the MIT TV cable, channel 9.
The slides used in the presentations will be made available in real time on the World Wide Web, as a useful companion to the video and audio provided by TV. The system to be used is called the Companion system. Current slide.
After the Event
The slides will be available for viewing using the Companion system after the Symposium is over. Start viewing here. The Photographic Appreciation of Bush will also remain available. There are plans to preserve the video and audio record of the Symposium and make it all available on the Internet.
Agenda
Thursday, October 12
- 9:00 AM
- Opening Remarks
- Andries van Dam, Program Chair
- Paul Penfield, Jr., MIT Host
- Paul Kahn, "Memex Historian"
- 10:00 AM
- The Strategic Pursuit of Collective IQ Abstract
- Douglas Engelbart Biography
- 11:00 AM
- Coffee Break
- 11:30 AM
- Where the Trail Leads Abstract
- Theodor Holm Nelson Biography
- 12:30 PM
- Lunch
- 1:30 PM
- Augmenting Bush's Vision with Digital Technology Abstract
- Robert Kahn Biography Home page
- 2:30 PM
- Hypertext and Our Collective Destiny Abstract
- Tim Berners-Lee Biography Home page
- 3:30 PM
- Coffee Break
- 4:00 PM
- The Seven Ages of Information Retrieval Abstract Complete paper
- Michael Lesk Biography Home page
- 5:00 PM
- Discussion
- 6:00 PM
- Reception and Photographic Appreciation
- Lobby of the Bush Building (Building 13)
- 7:30 PM
- Dinner
- Banquet Speech, Douglas Adams Biography
Friday, October 13
- 9:00 AM
- Being Digital
- Nicholas Negroponte Biography Home page
- 10:00 AM
- Bush's Intelligent Systems Revisited Abstract
- Raj Reddy Biography Home page
- 11:00 AM
- Coffee Break
- 11:30 AM
- Information Is Not Enough: Computer Support for Productive Work Abstract
- Lee Sproull Biography
- 12:30 PM
- Lunch
- 2:00 PM
- Simex: the Neglected Part of Bush's Vision Abstract
- Alan Kay Biography
- 3:00 PM
- Closing Remarks
The following two references may be of interest:
- "From Memex to
Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind's Machine" (James M. Nyce, Paul
Kahn, Academic Press, 1991) includes reference text for both the Life
and Atlantic Monthly versions of "As We May Think", as well as the
last manuscript draft of "Memex II", dated August 1957.
- An HTML text of
the Atlantic Monthly version, reproduced with permission per D. Duchier: http://www.isg.sfu.ca/~duchier/misc/vbush/.
This notice is from the MIT EECS event archive, academic year 1995-96.
To MIT EECS home page.
Your comments are welcome.
Rev. PP Oct 20, 1995.