theorywatch

Whenever I may think that I’m actually living the Memex life that I’ve fantasized about ever since reading Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think” thirty years ago, I suddenly find out that I’ve totally missed some important news item: for example, that noted philosopher Richard Rorty died last week. And then I read something like this by one of Rorty’s former students, and I think a little more. Given Bush’s own background, I’ve always associated the Memex idea with what Rorty called mirror of nature thinking, but that’s a pretty narrow view of the possibilities, as reading the (fortunately, still living!) philosopher of information Luciano Floridi always reminds me. Possible worlds, anyone?

On the other hand, I noted also that the ending quote mentioned in Dr. Mankiw’s blog has since been corrected by the New York Times: it seems that it is not a quote from Rorty, after all. And I would certainly want my Memex to make that correction: so it looks like it’s mirrors (if not turtles) all the way down for me.