Das associações

O design informacional deveria seguir a proposta do Memex, de Vanevar Bush, de funcionar como extensão da memória humana, com acesso associativo e intuitivo. Ele parte da análise do funcionamento cerebral do ser humano: "A mente humana opera por associação. Depois de apreender um fato ou uma idéia, a mente salta, instantaneamente, para o dado seguinte que lhe é sugerido por associação de idéias, seguindo alguma intrincada trama de caminhos conformada pelas células do cérebro."

"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"

Man cannot hope fully to duplicate this mental process artificially, but he certainly ought to be able to learn from it. In minor ways he may even improve, for his records have relative permanency. The first idea, however, to be drawn from the analogy concerns selection. 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" (BUSH: 1945, p. 12-13).

meu comentário: a repetição da palavra associação é proposital. Associação deve(ria) ser a palavra-chave para pensar a navegação e a composição por meio de ícones. Pode se revelar um modo de acabar com a tautologia.

A pensar,

LM