A literary invention of Vannevar Bush in a famous and engaging article As We May Think (July 1945), an inspiration for hypertext pioneers.

A memex is "a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility."

"Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified."

The World Wide Web, as apparent from its name, was supposed to be the universal global memex, and, despite technical shortcomings that some hypertext pioneers (Ted Nelson) like to stress: it is getting there.
I for one don't consider my work published before it's on the Web.

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