Posted by Were you expecting Nike high tops and a DeLorean?
In thinking more about current trends that will become business standards (more on that here: Four Current Trends That Will Change Marketing Forever) and in seeing many videos and photos of people with their new iPads, it started becoming very obvious that we all look like we’re on the set of Star Trek – The Next Generation. In fact, you can look back to all of the Star Trek series to see how much of that technology has come to life.
You can keep looking even further back for glimpses of where we’re currently at.
A friend reminded me of an excellent article titled, As We May Think, which was written by Vannevar Bush and published in The Atlantic back in July of 1945.
Please, please read this article.
One personal idea spark from this article is that it would not hurt to Blog (maybe once in a while) with the intention of thinking of the world as it could be, rather than our perceptions of what it presently is. In the end, Blogging about the future may well be much more interesting than covering the mundane of the day.
Just a thought.
Again, be sure to check out the article here: As We May Think by Vannevar Bush (The Atlantic – July 1945).
(hat-tip: Nancie).
Never another podcast episode or article 
We had to read and analyze this article at business school! Really interesting and thought-provoking as I remember it.
Agree with you Mitch. Nice article bro
I like to look at current movies to see what we’ll be doing in the future. For instance, the iPad reminds me a lot of those portable touch screens they used in the Avatar movie…we’re getting there, and it’s exciting.
But where’s my flying car!?
I read the article you suggested.
Fascinating.
And to think that the “knowledge navigator” from Apple in 1986 (
was avant-garde…
A.C CLarke foresaw the communication satellite more than 50 years ago.
G. Roddenberry’s J.T. Kirk had a modern cell phone whenever he needed to beam up in the 60’s
I. Asimov thought of videoconference in his “Caves of steel” in the 50’s
Clearly some people have been having “crazy’ ideas about the future for a long time.
And will keep having them!
I think I’m going to call my iPad a Memex. How cool. Thanks for the post and the link to this great article.
I particularly liked this:
“Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and, to coin one at random, “memex” will do. A memex is a 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.”