When reading this piece by Bush, I sat in amazement at the predictions being made for the future. Particularly the "walnut" camera. I enjoy information regarding space and recently NASA has sent a new rover to the surface of Mars. On this rover, are 17 different cameras (http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/rover/eyesandother/ ) that help it see. The rover itself is less than 10 feet long, wide and high. Some of these cameras are probably about the size of a walnut or maybe even smaller. Less than a couple minutes after the rover landed on Mars, an image was sent back and displayed in a relatively good resolution. This is only 60 or so years after Bush's prediction. Several of his other predictions, including dry photography, also are close to true today.
I couldn't stop reading this article because of the desire to see what else he predicted correctly or close too; credit cards, tablets, wikipedia. The list goes on, it is hard to believe that this was written in 1945 due to the accuracy of the claims.
I enjoy the fantastical way in which he imagines all these devices in the future similar to a dreaming child. He paints a picture in your mind of what it will look like and how life will be different. I can only imagine that in 1945 not many other imagined his dreams would ever exist. No one would believe we would possess that technology. Before 1945, the space race had not started, computers took up large rooms and were only capable of simple tasks, and photography was a long tedious process.
This makes you wonder about some of the dream people have today and if they will come true just as Bush's had. A question to ask yourself is "what will computers be like in 67 years?".
"As We May Think" - Vannevar Bush
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