Vannevar Bush wrote, "A record, if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted." Bush's continual storage and retrieval of records occurs today on our personal computers which have a Memex-like client process for multimedia applications such as HTML editors and web browsers. Today's use of the multimedia in personal computers and other products reflects Bush's description of the Memex.

Vannever Bush anticipated changes needed to produce innovations such as the Memex machine. He described the mathematical notation being used in his day as topsy--totally disordered. Certainly for graphic programs requiring coordinate input, a consistent mathematical notation is now being used. Although Bush did not coin the word query or search engine, he describes computer selection devices which query and will in the future, today, query faster. Although Bush did not coin the word multimedia, he drew upon his experience with other scientific products to suggest and predict future innovations including the Memex machine.

Vannever Bush also talked about other processes for which now have personal computer comparisons. The reduction of reading source volume with microfilm parallels the reduction of computer file space through the use of pkzip.exe on the personal computer. The input through pushing a pencil or typing a typewriter is now primarily done through a computer keyboard to a computer file. The improvements in cameras may be realized now through a computer program such as Microsoft PhotoEditor. However, as for "the arithmetical machine of the future" expected by Bush, a personal computer with graphical (multimedia) tools could qualify. Many products produced today are the modern version for Bush's description of existing products or the depiction of Bush's models of expectations. For example, the Memex's tilted screens might have been like the cascading windows in the Windows 3.1 environment.

Bush did not expect a Memex, having a keyboard, to have a touch-sensitive screen, although there are push buttons and levers to symbolize a touch-sensitive screen. He expected access to a database, and he gave no specification as to the limits of the database except for the data input process--what the user has on hand. A computerized scanner is used to input, store and reference materials into storage.

Possibilities are left open for a client situation which maintains a temporary database of links and bookmarked pages on the Memex desk while the huge database repository is outside (World Wide Web) for Bush used other scientists' information.

The Memex machine is a machine of multimedia, for it will show text and graphics in a window or screen. It has links which point to files that are shown in windows (the screens of the Memex). It is an application of hypermedia, for these links are like hyperlinks.

At one point, Bush said to type in a name for an implied link between two items. He wanted to access the information which is shared between two items. This would require a search engine, especially if the two items are just subject headings for pages and pages of information. This may occur on the pages of the index, which is a list of hyperlinks. Each hyperlink may point to another page of hyperlinks. The use of hyperlinks are the "essential feature of the memex," for "whereby any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another."

If not a hyperlink on the web, then a hyperlink within a document is described in the Memex. Encyclopedias of HTML links are an application of the Memex.

And when the "user is building a trail," he might as well be using an HTML editor to create the page of hyperlinks. And then he uses a web browser to browse the pages of data and links. As for joining two links, he embeds the two links on a page. He might even have for each link a large text box that receives the data for each link when a button is selected.

The Memex certainly was an application of multimedia. Although sound bits were not described as input for the Memex, the inclusion of the sound-driven typewritters in the same article leaves the reader to guess that Bush left the functionalities of the Memex flexible and open so that it would become, for us today, the personal computer of the future.