One cannot hope thus to equal the speed and flexibility with which the mind follows an associative trail, but it should be possible to beat the mind decisively in regard to the permanence and clarity of the items resurrected from storage.Ĭonsider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. Selection by association, rather than indexing, may yet be mechanized. The first idea, however, to be drawn from the analogy concerns selection. In minor ways he may even improve, for his records have relative permanency. Man cannot hope fully to duplicate this mental process artificially, but he certainly ought to be able to learn from it. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature. It has other characteristics, of course trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. Having found one item, moreover, one has to emerge from the system and re-enter on a new path. It can be in only one place, unless duplicates are used one has to have rules as to which path will locate it, and the rules are cumbersome. When data of any sort are placed in storage, they are filed alphabetically or numerically, and information is found (when it is) by tracing it down from subclass to subclass. Our ineptitude in getting at the record is largely caused by the artificiality of systems of indexing. The real heart of the matter of selection, however, goes deeper than a lag in the adoption of mechanisms by libraries, or a lack of development of devices for their use.
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