The influence of Vannevar Bush on the history and institutions of twentieth-century American science and technology is staggeringly vast. As a leading figure in the creation of the National Science Foundation, the organizer of the Manhattan Project, and an adviser to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman during and after World War II, he played an indispensable role in the mobilization of scientific innovation for a changing world. A polymath, Bush was a cofounder of Raytheon, a pioneer of computing technology, and a visionary who foresaw the personal computer and might have coined the term “web.” Edited by Bush’s biographer, G. Pascal Zachary, this collection presents more than fifty of Bush’s most important works across four decades. His subjects are as varied as his professional pursuits. Here are his thoughts on the management of innovation, the politics of science, research and national security, technology in public life, and the relationship of scientific advancement to human flourishing. It includes his landmark introduction to Science, the Endless Frontier, the blueprint for how government should support research and development, and much more. The works are as illuminating as they are prescient, from considerations of civil-military relations and the perils of the nuclear arms race to future encyclopedias and information overload, the Apollo program, and computing and consciousness. Together, these pieces reveal Bush as a major figure in the history of science, computerization, and technological development and a prophet of the information age.
Author(s): G. Pascal Zachary
Edition: 1
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF
Pages: 388
Tags: Technology And State: United States; Science And State: United States; Research
Table of Contents
Foreword, by Neal Lane
Introduction, by G. Pascal Zachary
Editor’s Note
1. Preface to Operational Circuit Analysis (1929)
2. The Key to Accomplishment (1932)
3. The Inscrutable Past (1933)
4. The Warren Weaver Letters on the Future of Computing Machinery (1933)
5. The Persistent Fallacy of the Absent-Minded Professor (1933)
6. Stimulation of New Products and New Industries by the Depression (1934)
7. The Businessman in This Situation (1934)
8. Against Isolation and for Application of Science to Warfare (1935)
9. The Engineer and His Relation to Government (1937)
10. The Qualities of a Profession (1939)
11. Innovation, Enterprise, and Concentration of Economic Power (1939)
12. Letter to Herbert Hoover on “The Whole World Situation” (1939)
13. Letter to Archibald MacLeish on “Adequate Handling of Large Masses of Photographs” (1940)
14. “Leave No Stones Unturned in Research” (1940)
15. “To the Things of the Mind”: Memorandum Regarding Memex (1941)
16. Science and National Defense (1941)
17. Edison and Our Tradition of Opportunity (1944)
18. Salient Points Concerning Future of Atomic Bombs (1944)
19. The Builders (1945)
20. Teamwork of Technicians (1945)
21. As We May Think (1945)
22. “Letter of Transmittal” to President Harry Truman (1945)
23. “Summary” to Science, the Endless Frontier (1945)
24. Soldiers and Scientists in Partnership (1946)
25. Organizing Scientific Research for War (1946)
26. The Danger of Dictation of Science by Laymen (1946)
27. Should Scientists Resist Military Intrusion? (1947)
28. Science, Democracy, and War (1949)
29. How Science Works, or Doesn’t, Under Totalitarianism (1949)
30. The Essence of Security (1949)
31. The Atomic Bomb and the Defense of the Free World (1951)
32. A Few Quick (1951)
33. On Leadership and Management (1951)
34. “The Timing of the Thermonuclear Test” (1952)
35. “The Search for Understanding” (1953)
36. The Peak Wave of Progress in Digital Machinery (1954)
37. “An Opportunity Was Missed” to Halt Nuclear Arms Race (1954)
38. In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (1954)
39. Some Things We Don’t Know About Solar Power (1954)
40. The Future of Digital Information: Storage, Retrieval, Search, and the Construction of Knowledge (1955)
41. Faith and Science (1955)
42. Why Do We Pursue Science at All? (1955)
43. The Pioneer (1957)
44. “Those Who Talk Frequently Become Ignored” (1957/1959)
45. On Sputnik (1957)
46. “All-out War Unthinkable to Any Sane Individual” (1959)
47. Machines to Free Men’s Minds (1960)
48. On Space Exploration: The James Webb Letters (1961–1963)
49. The Other Fellows’ Ball Park (1961)
50. Two Cultures (1962)
51. Automation’s Awkward Age (1962)
52. What Is Research? (1963)
53. The Art of Management (1967)
54. “On the Difficulty in Vietnam” (1967)
55. Do Birds Sing for the Joy of Singing? (1970)
56. The Revolution in Machines to Reduce Mental Drudgery (1970)
Acknowledgments
Index
