WWW and the Brain

The "World Wide Web" has a client-server relationship between the information and who(m) wants it. I couldn't help but agreeing with Herbert George Wells in the "World Brain". Vannevar Bush also agreed, with the creation of the Memex being a focus of "association, which is the pattern the human brain utilizes in assimilating information."

I was actually thinking about this last night when I was not able to fall asleep. Try to say the alphabet backwards. Did you have to go from the beginning to the get to the end multiple times. Sure everyone can get "z, y, x..." but what comes next? Singing the alphabet song in your head. You have an association with each letter what comes next, but not before it usually. It works very similar to a linked list in computer science, there exists properties or attributes that link to another node. Now you should be able to create a new 'node' for your brain and start to work backwards with work; knowing what comes before the letter you are on. "Z, Y, X, W, V, U, T, S, R, Q...", I got to Q before I fell asleep.

"This idea of retrieving information based on personal associations separates hypertext/media from traditional information retrieval systems."

Thus us what Bush's Memex was based off of. Which is scary accurate how the brain works. How many times have you created an acronym for a list of items or a saying to lead back to an acronym that leads back to a list? There are associations with the saying or acronym that only you know, that your brain associates with other information. Most the times when you are thinking of a word, you don't have to start with the first letter, then search your "index" for the word you are looking for. There is usually an association with the word that limits where it can be used.

Thinking about how correct Bush was in the theory of the Memex leading to the future of hypertext. Theodor Nelson said it correctly, "hypertext - may, and should, become the principle publishing form of the future". I believe that with the web, and how it is created we have reached that point, it may not be indexed exactly how your brain is, but it is indexed in a logic association allowing you to be able to follow.