no.2. The History (and Future) of the Extended Brain
How a 70 year old dream is coming true due to modern technologies.
In 1945, the dream of an External Second Brain was born.
This was a dream was by Vannevar Bush, an American Scientist, Inventor, and Roosevelt's top Science Advisor in WWII.
After the war, Bush described in agonizing detail (link at the end) the mechanisms for a device that would serve as a digital private library of knowledge. The Memex.
He anticipated that machines would extend human memory and thinking, just as they extended human movement and power in the industrial age.
This was the beginning of external digital brains.
💬 Quotes
Quote 1
“Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and, to coin one at random, 'memex' will do
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.
It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.”
– Vannevar Bush, 1945
Astonishingly, Vannevar Bush pictured the idea of an External Second Brain almost 70 years ago.
He uses the term "mechanized" to bring the idea of automation.
The Memex is a device that holds all of our knowledge, and can be accessed to serve as an extension of our memory.
With automatic access.
What he didn't predict is that this device would not come in the form of an entire desk, but of a small notebook (a mobile device).
Quote 2
“I, of course, do not think everything by myself. It happens mainly within the slip-box.”
– Niklas Luhmann, 1987
A living example of what the Memex would look like comes from German Sociologist Niklas Luhmann.
Luhmann was a prolific creator. He published 58 books and hundreds of articles, and he credited his efficiency and volume of publications to his thinking companion:
• The Slip-Box (Zettelkasten in German)
This was a physical (and manual) system of index cards he used to save his knowledge and connect different ideas.
This is a great example of how an external thinking device would work, even if not a mechanized one.
Quote 3
“To make use of information we value, we need a way to package it up and send it through time to our future self.
We need a way to cultivate a body of knowledge that is uniquely our own, so when the opportunity arises, we will have access to the wisdom we need to make good decisions and take the most effective action.”
– Tiago Forte, author of Building a Second Brain
Decades later, contemporary productivity expert, Tiago Forte beautifully puts into words the reason why this external thinking device is useful.
When you feed an external collection of knowledge, you are saving knowledge for your future self.
You can then access your own wisdom whenever you want.
This is a (very) precious tool.
Quote 4
“ We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us. ”
– Marshall McLuhan
In very simple words: The tools you use change you.
When you have access to powerful tools:
- Your thinking patterns change.
- Your behavior changes.
- Your limits change.
This is why humans have always been fascinated by tools.
And this leads us to the next section of this Letter, a breakdown of the short-term history of note-taking apps.
Naturally, note-taking apps present the best tools to build an external collection of knowledge, since knowledge is best represented by notes.
📄 Notes
Note 1. Timeline of Note-taking apps
I got this from Alex Idler. Here's a link to his Tweet.
Here, I signaled with orange boxes the Note-taking apps that presented Major Breakthroughs (details on the next note).
Note 2. Major Breakthroughs in Note-taking apps
2.1. Evernote, 2008
Evernote was the first accessible note-taking app.
2.2. Apple Notes, 2011
Every iPhone now comes with a note-taking app, Notes.
2.3. Notion, 2016
Notion revolutionizes note-taking with "No-Code" Building Blocks.
More than a note-taking app.
Notion has Databases, Integrations, Online Sharing, Dashboards, Project Management, and other features that allow you to create Systems for anything you want.
2.4. Roam Research, 2019
Roam Research was the first graph-based app and it brought two huge revolutions:
1) Bi-Directional Hyperlinks
Bi-directional means links work in both directions: Front-links (outgoing) and Back-links (incoming).
With Roam, links are much more powerful, similar to what Ted Nelson idealized in 1965. This started a networked thought revolution.
2) End-user Development
Roam enabled users to enhance the app, to solve their own problems. And allowing other users to use enhancements made by the community.
2.5. Mem.ai, 2019
Mem uses Artificial Intelligence as a central part of its note-taking app.
The first big step to add AI features to Second Brains.
2.6. Obsidian, 2020
Obsidian works with local files (on your computer).
They also take end-user development to a higher level and bring a solid combination of Hierarchical and Networked Organization together.
2.7. Tana, 2022
Tana is the newest breakthrough. I've written a long Twitter thread on how Tana works.
To keep it short over here, Tana combines 3 elements:
- Roam's Networked Organization.
- Custom Semantic Types defined by the user.
- Notion's Building Blocks (Databases, Dashboards, etc.)
Together, these features present a new unmatched paradigm.
Note 3. What's Next for Note-Taking apps?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will revolutionize Note-taking.
AI becomes more accessible and more powerful with every week that goes by, and developers are using it. Expect to see a huge increase in
In 2024, the landscape of note-taking apps will be totally different: New apps, new features, and new possibilities.
Look out for 2 major AI developments:
- AI Generation (Generative AI)
- AI Storage and Retrieval
In simple terms, AI will help you:
- Generate notes.
- Find your notes.
I wrote my Master's Thesis on how AI can find notes by automatically creating connections between them.
🔗 2 Links
1: AI and Note-taking, by Dan Shipper (2023)
Dan Shipper
In this article, Dan gives details on how AI will transform note-taking and Second Brains.
He focuses on AI Storage and Retrieval, with strokes of AI Generation:
- Automatic tagging, linking, and taxonomies
- Automated research reports
- CoPilot for notes
This week's links present a ↓ Past vs. Future ↑ comparison.
2: As We May Think, by Vannevar Bush (1945)
Vannevar Bush
This is the original article published by Vannevar Bush in 1945.
It's very intriguing to read what this genius was thinking in 1945 and how we are now getting really, really close to what he proposed.
Seriously, If you're curious, read this 1945 article and compare it to what Dan Shipper mentions in 2023.
If you can't access this article, you can open the PDF version for free here: