He may perish in conflict before he learns to wield that record for his true good.
I can confidently say that there are some people who still won't see it being used for good- but I believe there is always good happening with the help of modern instruments.
A special button transfers him immediately to the first page of the index. Any given book of his library can thus be called up and consulted with far greater facility than if it were taken from a shelf. As he has several projection positions, he can leave one item in position while he calls up another. He can add marginal notes and comments, taking advantage of one possible type of dry photography, and it could even be arranged so that he can do this by a stylus scheme, such as is now employed in the telautograph seen in railroad waiting rooms, just as though he had the physical page before him.
We can see this kind of technology at work with current school activities. Being able to have a complete digital library at your fingertips is especially more amazing in times like these- where we are sort of held back by the pandemic. It makes taking online classes way easier as well.
The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.
So this can also go with "always be curious" because once a person in introduced to something new, one of the first things they should do is wonder and ask questions. This can then spark something more to grow from what is shown.
At a recent World Fair a machine called a Voder was shown. A girl stroked its keys and it emitted recognizable speech. No human vocal chords entered into the procedure at any point; the keys simply combined some electrically produced vibrations and passed these on to a loud-speaker. In the Bell Laboratories there is the converse of this machine, called a Vocoder. The loudspeaker is replaced by a microphone, which picks up sound. Speak to it, and the corresponding keys move. This may be one element of the postulated system.
This sounds connected to the modern "text to speech" system we see now.
In the future perhaps it need not be wetted at all.
And it has now become that way with our smart devices and printers.
They have improved his food, his clothing, his shelter; they have increased his security and released him partly from the bondage of bare existence. They have given him increased knowledge of his own biological processes so that he has had a progressive freedom from disease and an increased span of life. They are illuminating the interactions of his physiological and psychological functions, giving the promise of an improved mental health.Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.
I think this kind of connection to the growth of technology gets a bit overlooked now with a growing fear many people seem to have. Perhaps it has to do with a corrupt government or just the negatives that spawn from greedy people who have control over what is produced by new technology. Some instruments created with modern technology are snagged up to make profit off of another person's needs in order to live. It's a real shame that there feels to be a loss of stability for the common person.
Now, says Dr. Bush, instruments are at hand which, if properly developed, will give man access to and command over the inherited knowledge of the ages. The perfection of these pacific instruments should be the first objective of our scientists as they emerge from their war work.
To think that this is how society took steps towards having a world wide web that holds our history and gives us the ability to expand our minds further with information about other cultures. Also the added addition of being able to communicate with someone from that culture- which I feel is helping us move closer to being a more empathetic society.
n this significant article he holds up an incentive for scientists when the fighting has ceased. He urges that men of science should then turn to the massive task of making more accessible our bewildering store of knowledge.
I think this idea is a good one- though I do wish science never had to be used for warfare in the first place.
“Consider a future device … in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.”
I am honestly amazed at how we live in a world now where we do have this device in our homes and even in our pockets.