A Response to Nelson’s Visions for the Future
According to this 1965 article, authored by the American IT revolutionary T.H. Nelson, the future of writing with the aid of computers had very specific elements that would greatly aid the creative process. Nelson theorizes that using computers as a tool in writing could potentially cut down writing time by 50% for the same content, allows for easy changes in outlines, and (perhaps most prominently discussed in this article) features that allow strong associations between content in a way that allows access to all associated work to be much easier and faster.
The ELF and Modern Digital Composition
This last feature is coined the Evolutionary List File (or ELF), appropriately named due to its ability to be fluid and dynamic as the author of a work continues to mold and reshape his or her musings and revelations. This ELF can be broken down into three key pieces:
- Entries: In simple terms, and entry would be a defined piece of information or segment of writing entered in a digital format.
- Lists: The list contains entries that the author deems related in any order, which may be changed at any time or duplicated into an identical list which may then also be changed at any time.
- Links: The links combine the various links and entries to create a fluid experience when shifting from one subject to another closely related one. This is most closely aimed at Nelson’s desire to reduce writing time via cutting down on the time wasted attempting to search through various physical documents without an inherent link between any of them.
When initially reading these concepts, one thought kept dominating my mind: this sounds remarkably similar to blogging. The author of a blog creates posts and drafts online, filled with any content they deem appropriate. The author then has the option to add tags and/or categorize their entries. Beyond this, the author has the option to link to other related blog entries or resources that contain relevant information. The overall result is a writing classified with similar entries and easily connected to outside resources that an author may easily continue manipulate indefinitely. Additionally, there can be an argument made that blogging takes less time than traditional, non-computer based writing.
The fact that Nelson was able to so closely outline the blogging boom that came approximately 25 years later amazes me. While it may not be exactly what he described or the image he had formed in his mind, it is certainly an offshoot of the same idea. To me, Nelson is among Vannevar Bush is his ability to push past the limits of current technological limitations to envision a future that is entirely capable of becoming reality. Fittingly, Nelson even mentions Bush’s idea of a Memex within the very same article.
Taking a Cue from Bush and Nelson (and a Few Deep Breaths)
Naturally, after reading the words of these two technological visionaries, I could not help but to imagine what the IT world has in store for years to come. While mostly optimistic, I fear that the digital world may lead to some problems in the future as it becomes less and less associated with its analog past. Much like a middle-aged to older person looks at an iPod and can’t help but to reminisce about the now nostalgic forms of music storage past, I too fear that we are possibly headed on a route that removes the “fun” out of our interaction with the information around us.
Everyday, I see more and more students around me taking notes on laptops, using online banking to replace their standard monthly statement, and turning to eBooks as an affordable, ultra-portable alternative to textbooks. While all of these represent humanity’s continued advancement in the realm of technology, I can’t help to think that we are headed on a path that will eliminate the less efficient, larger, and more ineffective methods of yesteryear. Sure, taping away on my new iPad is something I do often and find enjoyment in, I can’t help but to long for the smell of a new book accompanied by one of many shades of paper, the connection found in being able to use the tactile sense to enrich your experience with a book or paper, and even the priceless look on my mother’s face when I used entirely to much glue to transplant one piece of paper to another.
Nelson mentions desire to computerize everyday tasks in his publication entitled “Complex information processing: a file structure for the complex, the changing and the indeterminate.”
Beyond just my emotional connection the forms of information sharing and handling I have grown so fond of over the years, I also can’t help but to fret over much more serious complications. The most extreme case would be a scene out of one of my favorite novels, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In this highly digitized adaptation of the future, digital media becomes the only source of information and the books are burned to prevent their ideas from spreading. Will society every follow this route so much that the idea of a full length novel is obsolete? Will they see the ideas of the past as so threatening they must be burned? While this scenario is (hopefully) unlikely, I can also think of another more likely scenario in the tumultuous world we live in today.
An Uncertain Future
It is no secret that warfare is nearly inevitable in the politically charged world we inhabit today. It is also no secret that most nations, particularly ones of great power, rely heavily on technology, making it an obvious target for attack. Whether our technology is attacked internally via cyber attacks or the physical aspects such as servers and networks are destroyed in an attack involving physical weapons, it is clear that we would stand to lose a great deal of information. The safeguards we have in place are simply not adequate enough to preserve everything we have stored. On a smaller scale, even a simple computer crash can permanently destroy information. Wouldn’t it be much safer to still store some of our information in a different format, immune to the problems commonly associated with technology and digitization?
“Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket” is a highly applicable phrase here, as the stakes are certainly high. For the computer user facing the dreaded blue screen of death, he or she could still easily turn to a dictionary instead of dictionary.com or write on an actual sticky note and not a replica of one on a glossy screen. If everything becomes digitized in some not-so-far-off future, this back-up plan may be harder and harder to execute because it will not immediately come to mind as a solution anymore. For an apocalyptic event, or even the fall of a great civilization (which judging by history is inevitable) we could lose the entire technological era in terms of history for the few that rebuild, survive, and move on and hinder their ability to find necessary information when technology is not available. Even without a cataclysmic event, this loss of years of digital history is still a very real fear. Is going 100% digital truly a path we want to take?