Reading Assignment 1: "As We May Think"

I must admit, "As We May Think" by Vannevar Bush was not an easy read. So hopefully I am correct in my analysis in the article. As I was reading the article, I noticed it is a bit similar to the book I am currently reading in my Aesthetics and Theory course. The book is called The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil. Both Vannavar and Kurzweil discuss the evolution of technology, and where technology will go in the future.

One section that stood out to me was Vannevar's discussion of the intricacies of photography. He talks about 'wet' photography that has been the only way to create prints out of film. He says, "When Brady made his Civil War pictures, the plate had to be wet at the time of exposure. Now it has to be wet during development instead. In the future perhaps it need not be needed at all.  Vannevar is correct by his prediction, because now we have digital photography. In digital photography, you can automatically view what you are photography before you press the shutter. Instead of developing film developer, stop bath, etc., the photographer can easily hook up the camera to a USB port and see the photos they shot, then print it out from their printer, or upload them online. The user can take the shot and have high quality print in under 5 minutes, where it took a much longer time from shooting to development of a print. What is next after digital photography. Although it's under the same vein, telephones are now replacing actual cameras. Nowadays if you look at a good portion of photography online, there's a good chance it was taken by a higher end cell phone.

I think this can be said about all forms of technology. Once you think something is so unique and innovated, along comes something to top it. This is an on going thing.