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Do We Even have this Yet?: Reflections on the Memex



I got on a tangent of what a Memex is while reading a Medium article by Cory Doctorow. 

If you need to get caught up on what a Memex is, here is a Wikipedia article that you probably could have looked up yourself, but I made that link pretty easy for you right?

In short, a memex is a device concept that would record your recollections for later use. You could store volumes of encyclopedia and other reference along with your recollections and use both forms of data to make better data that can be used in the real world. For example, say you are a hairdresser that also does their own hair. From photos of your own hairstyles alongside the ones of your clients, your Memex, in theory, could summarize data that could possibly tell you which hairstyle takes the least amount of time but still meets your everyday standards. 

Of course this concept eventually led to a lot of what we have today. There is a great article by Brewster Kahle breaking down how the concepts of the Memex are fulfilled through modern technology. Voice to speech technology of the possible Memex eventually evolved into the somewhat fully realized Siri. Lowcountry and Geechee accents still trip it up, but we gettin there. Taking a snapshot running timeline of your life and storing it has been the foundation of every social media platform, outside of taking your data.

And while a lot of what the Memex had to offer is readily available to us as consumer, there is one core piece missing that the Memex happily advertised...

The Memex was for personal and consumer use. 

The concept device was intended for individual users. It was a way for individuals to curate their own content, both first-hand accounts and edited reference material, and create data. This data may be used immediately or processed even further to create usable data that created a benefit to consumer. 

What would a Memex of today look like? If the device relies on the user to pump it full of information to analyze to create usable data, wouldn't it be skewed? But connection to the World Wide Web would help with the inevitable bias that would soon occur. I'm pretty sure everyone's Memex wouldn't say that the best movie in the world is Shottas based on number of mentions in my personal Memex.

But we have the internet right? I wonder how a Memex would interact and provide individualized data using the infinite information found on the web? Would it help me determine that there is indeed a problem with our neighborhood's air quality because there are several people in the area with similar respiratory issues. Or would it send me down a rabbit hole of the most popular home remedies for a cold based on likes, retweets and copycat videos? 

And what happens if I load in my own content from other creators? Books with opinions I lean more towards. Videos I find more informative than others. Will my Memex prioritize my own collection against those of the world wide web even if my own download sources are riddled with inaccuracies and fake news? 

Do we have individual mega portions of Memex today? Sure! Has the final intention of the Memex been met? Not unless you are willing to pay for it. And even then, the purpose of said data is so narrow. Not only does infinite amounts of data benefit very few, but the ultimate goal of upselling is tired, uninspiring and dampens innovation to the point of detriment. 

But who knows. Maybe the true Memex hasn't been realized yet because we aren't ready as a human race to face the facts. Climate change may do it. The many interconnected upheavals that climate change causes is undeniably connected. Maybe we needed an obvious example of producing data that has real world benefits.  

Or maybe we will be stuck trading NFT's until the sun burns us all. But I have hope I we will get it right. Cheers Space Cadets. 

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