Thanks for this. With regards to attention and technology, perhaps something deeper is going on, particularly in the West. Our basic relationship with tech has gradually become inverted by the full-spectrum capture of our attention. This is really clear to me whenever I travel between Kenya and the UK. In places like Kenya, digital tech is still a tool (so far), people's lives and relationships are still largely unmediated by it, despite the widespread use of M-pesa etc.
Coming back to the UK is like climbing back inside my phone - we live INSIDE the tech here, it captures the main beam of our attention and mediates our relationships, our work, and almost every single part of our lives.. it is a tiny cramped landscape that is effectively an entire metaphysical level down, administered by the Silicon Valley tech priesthood that is doing its best to build us an AI demiurge. Or another way of thinking about it, an attempt appears to be underway to transform our society into a giant computer, each of us little nodes to be nudged limbically via our attention into running whatever activities will profit the companies who own this computer. We need to return a relationship where it is just a tool, quite urgently.. and this very much involves reclaiming our attention.
Oddly enough, attention seems to be getting a lot of attention at the moment.
Working long ago as a product manager in telecom services, a major challenge was to understand what the Internet might become and how to encourage greater customer use.
A thoughtful book at the time was "The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business" (2001) by Davenport and Beck. The opening cover blurb was:
"In today's information-flooded world, the scarcest resource is not ideas or even talent: it's attention ... unless companies learn to effectively capture, manage, and keep it--both internally and out in the marketplace--they'll fall hopelessly behind."
Much of the early promise of the Internet as an open, fair, and beneficial means of social connection died. Today, it consists mostly of contolled corporate plaforms, selling engines, and political playgrounds.
As they emerged, I struggled to comprehend how weird populist influencers and extremists could attract growing audiences. Then I realized there was a basic formula, a broader quest, at work ...
Attention = Influence = Power = Control = Wealth
Big business, then politicians, figured out this process as a path to greater success.
If individuals and society fail to resist in some fashion, then our lives will be furthered enslaved to selfish consumerism and politicized manipulation.
Thanks for this. With regards to attention and technology, perhaps something deeper is going on, particularly in the West. Our basic relationship with tech has gradually become inverted by the full-spectrum capture of our attention. This is really clear to me whenever I travel between Kenya and the UK. In places like Kenya, digital tech is still a tool (so far), people's lives and relationships are still largely unmediated by it, despite the widespread use of M-pesa etc.
Coming back to the UK is like climbing back inside my phone - we live INSIDE the tech here, it captures the main beam of our attention and mediates our relationships, our work, and almost every single part of our lives.. it is a tiny cramped landscape that is effectively an entire metaphysical level down, administered by the Silicon Valley tech priesthood that is doing its best to build us an AI demiurge. Or another way of thinking about it, an attempt appears to be underway to transform our society into a giant computer, each of us little nodes to be nudged limbically via our attention into running whatever activities will profit the companies who own this computer. We need to return a relationship where it is just a tool, quite urgently.. and this very much involves reclaiming our attention.
Oddly enough, attention seems to be getting a lot of attention at the moment.
Working long ago as a product manager in telecom services, a major challenge was to understand what the Internet might become and how to encourage greater customer use.
A thoughtful book at the time was "The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business" (2001) by Davenport and Beck. The opening cover blurb was:
"In today's information-flooded world, the scarcest resource is not ideas or even talent: it's attention ... unless companies learn to effectively capture, manage, and keep it--both internally and out in the marketplace--they'll fall hopelessly behind."
Much of the early promise of the Internet as an open, fair, and beneficial means of social connection died. Today, it consists mostly of contolled corporate plaforms, selling engines, and political playgrounds.
As they emerged, I struggled to comprehend how weird populist influencers and extremists could attract growing audiences. Then I realized there was a basic formula, a broader quest, at work ...
Attention = Influence = Power = Control = Wealth
Big business, then politicians, figured out this process as a path to greater success.
If individuals and society fail to resist in some fashion, then our lives will be furthered enslaved to selfish consumerism and politicized manipulation.