Back to the Memex

I found a short commentary by Ethan Cerami. His article, titled "Back to the Memex" takes a different approach when comparing the memex idea to the modern day workstation. This writer in 2014 states that we fall short of the memex because we lack information organizers that were described in the original concept of the memex. He also believes that modern computer doesn't always contain all the information that the average user will always read. Finally Ethan compares the trails between documents as hyperlinks and the indexing of information under Google.

Overall, I think that Ethan takes a very interesting approach when comparing the memex to current day technologies. While many people would dismiss the idea that the ideal memx would be more sophisticated than current technologies, it is true that we lack certain organization within information. It is difficult to easily add notes to information and easily organize information into folders that is not necessarily a document. I do disagree with the information storing capacity argument he makes, however. I think that although we do not necessarily have an abundance of information available on a desktop, that information is easily accessible via the Worldwide web. This article does a good job of bringing new ideas to light, but overall I think there are features that current technology does lack that the memex explained could be useful.

http://archive.oreilly.com/pub/post/back_to_the_memex.html