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Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:31:23 UTC Robert McNees

Vannevar Bush, an electrical engineer who built one of the first analog computers, was born #OTD in 1890. He headed the Office of Scientific Research and Development during WWII, proposed what became the @NSF, and devised an early hypertext system!
In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:31:23 UTC from mastodon.social permalink
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1. Vannevar Bush sitting at his desk. ‪He wears a dark grey suit with vest and a red tie. His hair is silver and he is wearing glasses with thin, round frames. Bush is reclining in a dark leather chair outlined by rivets, with mahogany arm rests. The wall behind him is yellow. mage Credit: Carnegie Institute for Science‬
  https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/006/781/612/941/378/original/2097525f7e997639.jpeg
- Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:34:12 UTC Robert McNees
  in reply to
  
  Bush and Hazen built their analog “differential analyzer” at MIT in the late 1920s.
  The incorporated ideas from both Babbage and Kelvin (whose work was apparently not known to Bush) and could solve differential equations via integration.
  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016003227900970?via%3Dihub
  In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:34:12 UTC permalink
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- Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:43:01 UTC Robert McNees
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  In 1936, Bush hired a young electrical engineering graduate student to be his research assistant in charge of running the differential analyzer. The student would go on to make foundational contributions to information theory – his name was Claude Shannon.
  
  In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:43:01 UTC permalink
- Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:44:47 UTC Robert McNees
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  Bush served as chairman of the National Defense Research Committee and later, during WWII, director of OSRD. In these roles he shepherded efforts ranging from the Manhattan Project to medical research to the development of radar.
  He was also (informally at first, and later on in an official capacity) the first Presidential Science Advisor, serving under both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S Truman.
  
  In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:44:47 UTC permalink
- Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:47:43 UTC Robert McNees
  in reply to
  
  In July of 1945, Vannevar Bush wrote to President Truman, responding to a request made by Roosevelt in 1944.
  He submitted a report titled "Science the Endless Frontier." It outlined a plan for federal support of the sciences and the establishment of what would become the National Science Foundation.
  In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:47:43 UTC permalink
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  1. It reads: LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 1530 P Street, NW. WAShINgTON 25, D. C. Juir 5, 1945. DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: In a letter dated November 17, 1944, President Roosevelt requested my recommendations on the following points: (1) What can be done, consistent with military security, and with the prior approval of the military authorities, to make known to the world as soon as possible the contributions which have been made during our war effort to scientific knowledge? (2) With particular reference to the war of science against disease, what can be done now to organize a program for continuing in the future the work which has been done in medicine and related sciences? (3) What can the Government do now and in the future to aid research activities by public and private organizations? (4) Can an effective program be proposed for discovering and developing scientific talent in American youth so that the continuing future of scientific research in this country may be assured
    https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/006/845/994/247/095/original/6277d6e5fcb580fa.jpeg
- Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:49:20 UTC Robert McNees
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  The report argued that the country must address national security, economic, and social issues with the sort of concentrated scientific effort Bush had overseen throughout the war. It was call for dedicated support of science to advance the public good.
  You can read the full document here: https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/vbush1945.htm
  In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:49:20 UTC permalink
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  1. No result found on File_thumbnail lookup.
    
    Science the Endless Frontier
- Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:52:01 UTC Robert McNees
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  That same month, July 1945, Vannevar Bush published "As We May Think" in The Atlantic.
  This forward-looking essay anticipated hypertext, the web, Wikipedia, and other information technologies in the form of a desk-like device he called a "memex."
  The article is still available in The Atlantic’s archives. You can read it here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/
  In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:52:01 UTC permalink
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  1. It reads: As We May Think "Consider a future 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. _") VANNEVAR BUSH JULY 1945 ISSUE
    https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/006/862/883/630/556/original/d16bb74627be4be5.jpeg
  2. As We May Think
    
    from Vannevar Bush
    
    “Consider a future 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.”
- Airbag Moments (airbagmoments@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:53:24 UTC Airbag Moments
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  @mcnees the fact that Shannon's basic theory is as unknown as Einstein's basic theories are known is a huge problem with science education to me.
  
  In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:53:24 UTC permalink
- Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:54:50 UTC Robert McNees
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  Vannevar Bush, back in 1945, anticipating the problem of too many open browser tabs full of questionable articles.
  In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:54:50 UTC permalink
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  1. The passage reads: He has dozens of possibly pertinent books and articles in his memex. First he runs through an encyclopedia, finds an interesting but sketchy article, leaves it projected. Next, in a history, he finds another pertinent item…
    https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/006/873/933/579/030/original/31e1a7b9cb8db496.jpeg
- Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:58:10 UTC Robert McNees
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  Anyway, here is video of a ~Macromedia Director~ application made way back in 1995, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bush’s prescient article.
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c539cK58ees
  
  In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 21:58:10 UTC permalink
- Incognitim (incognitim@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 22:00:06 UTC Incognitim
  in reply to
  
  @mcnees leave it to the Atlantic to keep a nearly hundred year old article behind a paywall... 😂🤣
  
  In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 22:00:06 UTC permalink
- Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 22:02:20 UTC Robert McNees
  in reply to
  - Incognitim
  @Incognitim An article about a future where information is broadly accessible!
  
  In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 22:02:20 UTC permalink
- Incognitim (incognitim@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 22:09:30 UTC Incognitim
  in reply to
  
  @mcnees lol- right?!?! Gotta appreciate the irony at least. 😅
  I also would've thought the copyright had expired(?), so paywalling it is a kind of crappy.
  
  In conversation Saturday, 11-Mar-2023 22:09:30 UTC permalink
- Winchell Chung ⚛🚀 (nyrath@spacey.space)'s status on Sunday, 12-Mar-2023 01:59:26 UTC Winchell Chung ⚛🚀
  in reply to
  
  @mcnees
  The differential analyzer in scifi movies
  https://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.php?c=60
  In conversation Sunday, 12-Mar-2023 01:59:26 UTC permalink
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    https://cdn.masto.host/spaceyspace/media_attachments/files/110/007/628/763/413/103/original/cabe25528f685f9d.jpg
- Steinar Bang (steinarb@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 12-Mar-2023 09:58:07 UTC Steinar Bang
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  @mcnees As We May Think https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_We_May_Think
  In conversation Sunday, 12-Mar-2023 09:58:07 UTC permalink
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  1. As We May Think
    
    "As We May Think" is a 1945 essay by Vannevar Bush which has been described as visionary and influential, anticipating many aspects of information society. It was first published in The Atlantic in July 1945 and republished in an abridged version in September 1945—before and after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bush expresses his concern for the direction of scientific efforts toward destruction, rather than understanding, and explicates a desire for a sort of collective memory machine with his concept of the memex that would make knowledge more accessible, believing that it would help fix these problems. Through this machine, Bush hoped to transform an information explosion into a knowledge explosion. Concept creation The article was a reworked and expanded version of Bush's essay "Mechanization and the Record" (1939). Here, he described a machine that would combine lower level technologies to achieve a higher level of organized knowledge (like human memory processes). Shortly after the publication of this essay, Bush coined the term "memex" in a letter written to the editor of Fortune magazine...

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