As We May Think

So here is my review of one of many coming articles that will be reviewed on this blog.
Article can be found here.  I switched it to print mode before reading, because it saves me precious time having to load each page of the article.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/1969/12/as-we-may-think/3881/

Review:

It seems to me that the author here is taking an unnecessary amount of length to make a relatively simple point. This article could be written better.  While trying to maintain attention to the main point of the article, I was constantly drawn away by a language that is unconventional for its topic and far too wordy and full of distracting attempts at examples, making it difficult at best to maintain my interest in the read.  Considering I am a ravenous reader, that is saying something.

After poring through this exhausting rhetoric, I managed to (after a second try) figure out the main point: it talks about how we now have a golden opportunity to use our scientists to create new and innovative ways of archiving and accessing information, as well as methods of making it available to as much of the world as physically possible.

Some of this article's examples make it clear that we are perfectly capable of such a task, such as the instance where it describes film technology and how it can be used to condense the information of a library into a form that could fit in a desk drawer.  However, the amount of sheer detail used in this example was unnecessary, and gave me the impression that the author was only trying to flaunt their own knowledge of this technology, in an effort to sound impressive.  I notice this in pretty much every other example the author provided.  Also, the language the author used was definitely inappropriate for the topic.  It appeared to me that Bush not only wanted to flaunt his knowledge of this topic, but also to flaunt his ability to speak like Cicero.  Well played, Bush.

As for my opinion on this topic, I cannot deny that Bush has made a good argument for finding a better physical means of storing, cataloging , and making accessible information.  While some may think Bush has skipped the all-important technology of electronic and digital information (such as the internet), I can recognize and agree how much more beneficial it would be in the long term to find a physical means of storing that same amount of information.  Digital technology only lasts as long as electricity, the internet, and other digital technologies are available--however, these remain the most-easily destroyed or damaged technologies, as they are fragile.  The digital data itself also remains the most easily-erased form of data storage. In the event we have to start from scratch somewhere, the internet would not exist for us...and information would not be as easily available to us as say, "a van full of microfilms."  I think this cause is a worthy cause for scientists to work for.

Now that I've thrown in my two cents, I'm gonna go play some Starcraft 2 before I actually start caring about this topic.