Vannevar Bush

1890–1974 — USA

Era: Modern

Brilliance: 8/10 | Stewardship: 7/10 | Composite Index: 56

Described the internet in 1945. Called it the Memex.

"The real problem is that people have not yet learned to work with these machines."

Biography

Vannevar Bush was an American engineer and science administrator who pioneered analog computing and conceptualized hypertext technology decades before the internet existed. As director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development during WWII, he coordinated the Manhattan Project and shaped postwar scientific policy. His 1945 essay 'As We May Think' envisioned the Memex, a protointernet device that inspired generations of computer scientists and anticipated the World Wide Web.

Key Facts

Invented the differential analyzer, an early analog computer used for complex calculations
Published 'As We May Think' in The Atlantic in July 1945, describing associative indexing and hypertext
Managed over 6,000 scientists during WWII as head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development
The Memex concept influenced Tim Berners-Lee's development of the World Wide Web in the 1990s
Warned about the dangers of nuclear weapons and the need for international scientific cooperation in the postwar era

1945: Bush imagined the internet as a desk-sized memory machine.

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