Looking for opinions...

[Brent Hilpert]

On 2018-Mar-28, at 6:52 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
  [...]
> If only that were 16mm or 35mm continuous rolls, instead of microfiche!
> 
> In 1931, Emanuel Goldberg, then a chief engineer at Zeiss built the "Statistical Machine". By recording bits optically in the margins of microfilm, and reading them with photocells, it could find appropriate frames!
> 
> For use in soundtrack for films, Mauer puts up to 8 parallel variable area optical tracks in the margin!
> 8 bit parallel!
> Goldberg was also apparently responsible for the Contax camera.
> BUT, in the days leading up to World War Two, he fled Dresden and Zeiss could not afford to have mention of a Jew in a high profile position, and by the time the war ended, they had systematically erased most clues that he had existed!
> 
> http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~buckland/goldberg.html
> 
> A decade later, Vannevar Bush stole the idea, and without credit, claimed it as his own, as the foundation for his Memex device.


An article ( http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~buckland/goldbush.html ) on your referenced site assesses the state of the art in between Goldberg and Bush (1931-1938).
Near the end the writer states:

	" Three considerations suggest that he [Bush] was unaware of the detail
	of Goldberg's work when he [Bush] built his prototype in 1938-40: [. . .] "

and makes no conclusion of conscious influence (on Bush by Goldberg).

So when you say Bush "stole", and "claimed it as his own", etc., do you have some other reference or is this merely your pejorative accusation and hyperbole?


> Bush did not successfully build his machine.

(Not the Memex you mention, but, as discussed in the article, he did build the predecessor 'microfilm rapid selector'.)


> Bush's Atlantic Monthly article, "As We May Think" is sometimes considered the foundation of modern information science.
> Bush did not understand nor accept the concepts of index nor hierarchical organization, so he pushed for linkage to go from one topic into another.
> Ted Nelson credits it as the inspiration for Hypertext, and Cern credits Ted nelson.