In July 1945, an American engineer named Vannevar Bush published an obscure but immensely influential essay of visionary importance called “As We May Think.” This essay, written as World War II was ending, pointed to the legitimacy of the scientific enterprise and imagined a world where there was a collective memory where information and knowledge would be readily accessible to people, with words linked to other topics, and data storage done in a fashion that was more organic than the alphabetized sorting that is still most familiar to us. This essay managed to point to such contemporary phenomena as Wikipedia [1], hypertext in helping make knowledge more accessible, with the hope that such accessible knowledge would focus the intellectual energies of mankind to creation instead of destruction. He was concerned about increasing specialization and the need for knowledge to be accessible enough to be of use in helping to guide the actions of responsible human beings, an optimistic vision, but one that in part has been realized, if not always for the most constructive of means.

We may term Bush’s thoughtful work an example of a prophetic vision, a vision whose vivid and compelling nature, and its responsiveness to the issues of the times, gave encouragement to people who turned that vision into a reality. We may be fortunate that the vision of the future this engineer had was one that sought peace and the increase of knowledge, as there are vastly worse targets for one to aim at with one’s visions of the future. Yet before technology was invented to create our contemporary information society, it required a vision of a possible future to encourage more pragmatic people to turn that vision into a reality, once it had filled their imaginations with possibility. Very often changes to our world require first a vision that presents a possible future that can be attained, which then allows people to point themselves in a given direction and to take such steps are available to them to achieve that reality. It is not magic that turns our visions into reality, but rather that imagination in some way provides the motivation to take the practical steps for achieving one’s vision, and that we must see before we can do.

Not all such visions are benign. The power of a vision to transform the world can be seen in the negative sense as well in the destructive fury of the so-called Islamic Caliphate, destroying the ruins of great historical cities that are supposedly blasphemous in nature. Similarly, the destructive power of the vision of Adolph Hitler for a Jew-free Europe was a key factor in the horrors of the Holocaust. As most people tend to live life in a prosaic way and accept, for better or worse, the reality that exists, it takes the power of a compelling vision to motivate people to act in order to change that reality. Sometimes these visions are creative, seeking to build a new future, and sometimes these visions are destructive, looking to destroy what is viewed as evil in our present world. Some of these visions are motivated by a desire for love and a sharing of knowledge, and some of these visions are dark and motivated by furtive plotting for private and personal benefit. The strength of a vision is often determined by the way it motivates people to act according to that vision, although we must be careful not to celebrate all visionaries without a proper understanding of their visions.

As a man thinks, so he is [1], said the diarist Samuel Pepys, another man whose vision of efficient bureaucracy was immensely influential in shaping the world we know. Our thoughts are intangible, and cannot be read with accuracy unless we choose to share them honestly in some fashion. Yet these thoughts, whether private or public, are of immense importance, for it is our thoughts and our passions that drive our behavior, and it is our behavior that shapes our world and that of others. How is our vision to be informed by that which serves our own best interests, and that of others, that sees a world of possibilities that inspire us to use our energies for the service of mankind and in obedience to God’s ways? How is our vision to help us in developing those skills and talents we possess that may benefit us in the future even if we cannot always see an immediate practical benefit and which can be honed towards the achievement of our deepest longings and for the fulfillment of our ultimate purpose here on earth? This vision can be an elusive one, but nevertheless it is a matter of great importance.

[1] See, for example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_We_May_Think

[2] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/mens-cujusque-is-est-quisque/