Vivian Linderman's Profile

The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association. With one
item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the
association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails
carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course;
trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully
permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of
trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in
nature.

Selection by association, rather than
indexing, may yet be mechanized. One cannot hope thus to equal the speed and
flexibility with which the mind follows an associative trail, but it should be
possible to beat the mind decisively in regard to the permanence and clarity of
the items resurrected from storage.

So much for the manipulation of ideas and their insertion into the record. Thus
far we seem to be worse off than before—for we can enormously extend the
record; yet even in its present bulk we can hardly consult it. This is a much
larger matter than merely the extraction of data for the purposes of scientific
research; it involves the entire process by which man profits by his
inheritance of acquired knowledge. The prime action of use is selection, and
here we are halting indeed. There may be millions of fine thoughts, and the
account of the experience on which they are based, all encased within stone
walls of acceptable architectural form; but if the scholar can get at only one
a week by diligent search, his syntheses are not likely to keep up with the
current scene.

There is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that
we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is
staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other
workers—conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear.

methods of transmitting and reviewing the results of
research are generations old and by now are totally inadequate