Library · Tag

Vision

An annotated collection of 3 books & essays on vision, spanning 1945 to 1981. Featuring works by Vannevar Bush, Ted Nelson — each with editorial commentary oriented to digital product practice.

As We May Think

Vannevar Bush, 1945 · The Atlantic

Point zero. Bush imagined the Memex in 1945 — a machine for augmenting human memory through associative trails. Every hyperlink, every wiki, every recommendation system is a partial realisation of this essay. Read it not…

Computer Lib / Dream Machines

Ted Nelson, 1974 · Self-published

The most radical manifesto of personal computing — a book printed back-to-back, readable from either end. Nelson coined "hypertext" and argued that computers are too important to be left to computer scientists. Wild, unc…

Literary Machines

Ted Nelson, 1981 · Self-published

Nelson's self-published, endlessly revised manifesto describes Project Xanadu — a hypertext system conceived in the 1960s that envisioned two-way links, version tracking, micropayments for authors, and transclusion as al…