Wow, that Vannevar guy CALLED IT
Camera worn on forehead, the size of a walnut: GoPro
A library of a million volumes compressed into one end of a desk: Hard Drive
Wholly new forms of encyclopedia: Wikipedia, or any wiki for that matter.
He even figured out that digital assets would have a marginal cost of 0 (Britannica example on page 2)!
As Mr. V goes on, he describes what we now know today as Google. He foresees a “selection device” (a memex as he calls it) that helps a user with “selection by association, rather than indexing”. He foresees the deevolution that Nicholas Carr describes.
Carr brings up good points about the associative nature of our apparent neurological rewiring. I believe him. I hate reading. I love the internet and the resources it offers. Although I also am unsure of what the future holds, I’m not afraid. I think it is indeed our “counter-tendency to expect the worst of every new tool or machine” that gives us this initial feeling.
I personally think the machination of these processes will pave the way for humans to be more creative and recreative than ever before. Lets let the robots do all the work. I’ve seen the matrix, iRobot, and all the others. Although I agree we can’t live without computers, I still think we’ve got a long time before computers figure out how to live without us.