Vannevar Bush was an American engineer and science administrator who during World War II headed the Office of Scientific Research and Development, which carried out nearly all wartime military research, including radar and the early Manhattan Project. He worked on analog computers, and from 1927 built a differential analyzer that could solve differential equations with up to 18 variables. In the 1930s he developed the idea of the memex, a hypothetical microfilm viewer that would let users link and navigate documents in a way analogous to hypertext. He described it in his 1945 essay As We May Think. In his 1945 report Science, The Endless Frontier he argued for government support of science, which helped lead to the creation of the National Science Foundation. Many later computer scientists cited his vision as an early blueprint for the web.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.