Vannevar Bush

Visionary engineer who laid conceptual foundations for the internet and modern computing

Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) engineered the analog computing revolution and conceptualized hypertext decades before digital implementation. As head of U.S. WWII scientific research, he orchestrated the Manhattan Project while envisioning post-war technological utopia.

Bush's 1945 essay 『As We May Think』 introduced the Memex - a proto-hypertext system using microfilm and associative linking. This revolutionary concept directly inspired Douglas Engelbart's oN-Line System and Ted Nelson's hypertext theories. The Bush Hypothesis about information explosion remains crucial to internet philosophy.

His differential analyzer (1931) - a 100-ton mechanical computer - solved complex ballistics equations, enabling modern artillery. As NSF architect, Bush established the military-industrial-academic complex, funding early digital computers and radar technology.

Despite these achievements, Bush's true difference-making lies in conceptualizing human-machine symbiosis. His vision of enlarged human memory and trails of association between information predated web browsers by 50 years. The Bush Doctrine of government-funded basic research continues driving technological innovation today.