This post is about “Back to the Future” but not exactly. These three articles will discuss predictions of the technology of the future. Vannevar Bush, J.C.R Licklider and Doug Engelbart’s work discusses what their opinions of how technology of the future will be like.

     Vannevar Bush writes this article after World War II about the importance of being able to access records and research that has been done throughout generations. He says that since the war is behind us, we should turn our focus from making technology for wars to concentrating on machines for accessing information and research that have been recorded. In “As We May Think”, Bush predicts the technology of the future.  Bush describes a theoretical machine that he named the “memex” which he thought could improve human memory and allows the user to store and recover documents, which were linked because of their association to each other. I think he was talking about what we know today as hypertext today. In this article, Bush talks about analog computers and predicts the digital age. He predicts the inventions of digital cameras, Polaroid cameras, electric adding machines, charge cards, voice activated typing, advanced use of microfilm, digital registers that would also keep record of inventories and sales transactions and the fax machine. 

     J.C.R. Licklider foresaw the need of networked computers and man’s growing dependence on computers as well as a time when man and computer would become interdependent.  The main idea of the “Man-Computer Symbiosis” was that computers should be developed with the goal “to enable men and computers to cooperate in making decisions and controlling complex situations”. He thought that humans should set goals, formulate hypotheses, determine criteria, and perform evaluations and that computers should do routine work. In other words, humans should be involved in intellectual work and the computers should do the ordinary, boring everyday work. He wanted easy user interfaces so that people could use computers to make decisions. He talked about computer networking and software being available for everyone on a network. He also mentioned the use of white boards, speech activated typing, and digital libraries.

     The research summary report called “Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework” looks at increasing the capability of a human to approach a complicated problem, understand it and to solve the problem. Doug Engelbart’s ideas are similar to Linklider’s ideas on how computer could be used. They looked beyond computers being used just for computation. Engelbart realized that computers could be used to augment human intelligence. This research proposed that our survival depends on being able to work together more effectively with better tools, and he felt that computers could help us do this. He knew like Bush did that they were living in a very complex time with many world problems. He also knew that there had to be a better way to use computers and solve problems and look for answers in all the data we had collected. He felt that if computers could show you information on punch cards, then they could also provide you with information on a screen. Engelbart’s hypothesis was that computers were the next step in the development of human intellectual abilities. He proposed an innovative technology system, a new writing machine, which we now know as a word processor. He thought it could integrate ideas easily and help with the creative process. This computer based typewriter would facilitate automated external symbol manipulation and computers could and would be thinking and communicating. In this report, he proposed that a computer lab be set up so that people could use them to find out information. Both Linklider and Bush ideas are included in his research report about in this report.