Links
The 1945 Memex design also introduced the concept of "trails", a concept derived from work in neuronal storage-retrieval networks at the time, which was a method of connecting information by linking units together in a networked manner, similar to hypertext paths. The process of making trails was called "trailblazing", and was based on a mechanical provision "whereby any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another", just as though these items were being "gathered together from widely separated sources and bound together to form a new book"
Bush went so far as to suggest that in the future, there would be professional trailblazers who took pleasure in creating useful paths through the common record in such a fashion.
— http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/2/1/000015/000015.html ↗
- early idea for links (trails) in Memex was not so much a link from one thing to another, but a path through a complex idea
- web "links" often feel like links on a wrong level - we link whole articles instead of sentences/paragraphs
- transclusions and backlinks are both related ideas
- exploring links is related to Browsing vs Searching