Any vision of a new technology implies a vision of human beings and their behavior. In this talk I describe the vision of human behavior associated with the most influential technology visions of personal computing, epitomized by Vannevar Bush's Memex--the vision of the solitary thinker and problem solver. I contrast this vision with an alternative view of how human productive behavior actually occurs--in interdependent social relationships. I review the current state of computer support for social actors and propose an alternative view in which information processing is subordinated to relationship managing.
on the web
Abstract
http://www.eecs.mit.edu/AY95-96/events/bush/f11.html