Talk about creativity!

As pointed out by Alex Wright (2007) in his chapter titled "The Web that Wasn't" found in GLUT, in the wake of World War II their came an advance in the ideas involving information retrieval systems. In 1945, for example, Vannevar Bush published his essay "As We May Think" in The Atlantic Monthly. Therein, Bush imagined a a fictional machine named the Memex. It would be like a workstation providing access to documents stored on microfilm, allowing users to forge associative information trails.

Lo and behold! The Memex, as depicted by Alfred D. Cimi in Life, September 10, 1945.
According to Wright (2007), the caption to this image read:
"MEMEX in the form of a desk would instantly bring files and material on any subject to the operator's fingertips. Slanting translucent viewing screen magnify supermicrofilm filed by code numbers. At left is a mechanism which automatically photographs longhand notes, pictures and letters, then files them in the desk for future reference" (p. 193).

Wright, A. (2007). The web that wasn't. In GLUT: Mastering Information through the Ages (pp. 183-229). Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press.