Pioneer Spirits and the Lure of Technology: Vannevar Bush's Desk, Theodor Nelson's World

Vannevar Bush and Theodor Nelson are often cited as paternal figures for such technologies as hypertext and the World Wide Web. Their developments and visions, such as Bush's memex and Nelson's Xanadu, have been praised as precursors to current trends in digital information technology, and are for the most part framed within discourses that border on nostalgia for a past where singular genius could work unencumbered by the trappings of the common world. For many contemporary critics, especially those working in the area of hypermedia, the figures of Bush and Nelson are seen as visionaries who forecast a kind of ideal merger between technology and humanity—a merger intended to usher in a new age of productivity, creativity, and self-fulfillment. Such representations give rise to a technological determinism where technology is elevated to a sphere in which it can exert its influence on humanity in a state of pure remove: technology and its discourses are depicted as being wholly rational and technical and thus isolated from social and cultural spheres and influences. Among the consequences is a form of tunnel vision that, as David Noble stated more than thirty years ago, views "modern technology as though it had a life of its own, an internal dynamic which feeds upon the society that has unleashed it." ¹

In a similar fashion, the "men behind the machines" are often portrayed as somehow existing on a plane of their own making. Toiling away in their laboratories and basement workshops, these single-minded geniuses have little time for the lures of society with its messy clutter of emotions, values, and human weaknesses. Their eyes are set, rather, on the pure light of the truth, as represented by science and realized by the clean forms of metal, glass, and plastic.

This essay is in part a response to such idealized representations of both technology and the individuals behind particular innovations. More specifically, I argue that most accounts of Bush and Nelson, especially when used as a base to develop theories and critiques of new media such as hypertext and the World Wide Web, are rarely situated in relation to their ideological and social contexts. Rather, Bush and Nelson are often represented via a romanticized discourse of radicalism that posits hypertext as a crucial evolutionary step in the history of communication and, moreover, as a serious challenge to the standard practices and assumptions of print culture. ² Behind this mantle of revolution and resistance, however, the two so-called founding fathers of hypertext are also representative of far more conservative tendencies, in that their respective projects and visions often have the effect of confirming the status quo rather than seriously challenging it.

My aim here is not to discredit the accomplishments and ideas of Bush and Nelson. Rather, I wish to stress that any references to historical figures or accomplishments for the purpose of theorizing present technological practices such as hypertext must take into account the ideological, historical, and cultural forces that are instrumental in forming the paradigms, conceptions, models, and methods of those technological visions. The resultant insights are valuable not only for developing a richer understanding of the past, but also for emphasizing that current paradigms and models of both human and technological development are driven by a complex mix of individual, social, scientific, cultural, and political legacies.

Vannevar Bush and the World of the Memex

The story begins in the dark, predigital past—a past where vacuum tubes and wax cylinders cluttered the tops of laboratory tables:

Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and to coin one at random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with...