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Think more about Attention. Not about Information. Information is exploding and global available Attention doesn't grow. People who pay attention to one thing,
by cen4 2y ago
Think more about Attention. Not about Information.
Information is exploding and global available Attention doesn't grow. People who pay attention to one thing, can't use the same time to pay attention to something else.
So govts and corps fight over this common pool of Attention using the Media (TV/Movies/Radio/Social/News/Sports/Gaming etc etc), just like they fought over land and oil and other natural resources. Media is literally used like front line troops of colonial empires in Attention capture wars.
But no one wins as long as Global Human Attention isn't given purpose. We await someone or some group to articulate that vision. Until then people working in Attention Capture fields will keep amusing us to death.
- moffkalast 2y agoAttention is all you need?
- portaouflop 2y ago> as long as Global Human Attention isn't given purpose We tried out the grand visions to improve the human condition with one great push in the 20th century- didn’t work out so well
- BriggyDwiggs42 2y agoThe failure of some grand visions doesn’t doom all future ones. That’s just silly.
- vlovich123 2y agoEveryone knows that if at first you don’t succeed, never try again.
- portaouflop 2y agoGrand vision (or ideology as it’s also called) is a dead end of history - has been tried too many times, always failed spectacularly. Instead we need small incremental lasting change - thinking we can transform life within a generation without repercussions, that’s just silly
- BriggyDwiggs42 2y agoWe actively live under an ideology, and the idea that we should only seek to change things in small incremental ways is a fixture of that ideology. I think that’s called liberalism but I’m not really sure. Either way, who said anything about grand visions being restricted to a short time window of implementation? Any grand vision I could remotely conceive of would have to take centuries at least, unless maybe you consider some benevolent AI dictator or something.
- Nasrudith 2y agoGrand visions are more in service of megalomaniacal egos than actual solutions. They all just paint over the very real complexities of the world and expect things to just work as they envisioned. Just get rid of the sparrows eating grains and it will just be fine! There are limits to what complexities can be contained within one human mind, and with a world already orders of magnitudes more complex than that we need the humility to admit that the vision of one human mind is not and cannot be all-encompassing. I think it is fair to say that the usefulness of grand visions is dead.
- BriggyDwiggs42 2y agoThere’s no requirement that a vision be constrained within one person’s mind, that it be inflexible to changing conditions, that it be incapable of testing policies before it implements them, and who’s to say that sufficiently complex machines or new organizations of people wouldn’t be capable of successfully abstracting society’s irreducible complexities well enough to make good decisions? Couldn’t a grand vision, for example, be one in which local communities make most important decisions for themselves, thus removing most of the computational failures of central governance? I just think you’re picturing fascism or communism when I say grand vision, but imo those aren’t representative of what every grand vision would look like.
- CalRobert 2y agoThe Green Revolution, vaccines, and space exploration have been pretty great.
- throwaway2037 2y agoLiteracy too!
- onion2k 2y agoBut no one wins as long as Global Human Attention isn't given purpose. The problem is that "people working in Attention Capture fields" are the exact people who are winning, at least by the most common scoring mechanism of 'wealth'.
- chongli 2y agoThey're enriching their bank accounts just as they're impoverishing their spirits. On their deathbeds, no one ever says "gee, I wish I'd spent more time at the office." The same could be said for any other wealth-motivated exercise. If I have learned one thing in life it is this: money is, at best, a necessary evil. A means to an end. Pursuing it as an end in itself is an indication that we have strayed from the path and forgotten what we were doing.
- onion2k 2y agoOn their deathbeds, no one ever says "gee, I wish I'd spent more time at the office." I bet a lot of people have died regretting they didn't earn more.
- Nevermark 2y agoMoney has made it far easier to barter work into what people need to survive, obtain stability & enjoy life, than its absence. It’s easy to be jaded by those that obviously value it more than others’ well being. But the mismatch of priorities is what is wrong, that doesn’t negate money’s positive practical value & impact. Most people have a more multifaceted relationship with money than as a dehumanizing god or drug.
- CalRobert 2y agoSure, but they’re also outbidding me for a house.
- apwell23 2y agoAre you trying to get in a "good school district" ? Is that really that strongly correlated to kids outcome in life . kids grow up and fight for a house in good school district :). I feel like having kids is root of all evil. Ppl justify all sorts of things (like wars and bidding for houses) and say that they are doing those things for sake of their kids.
- HPsquared 2y agoI don't know, it's possible for a person to pay no attention to anything. Therefore it isn't always maxed out. Also the "quality" of attention can vary. I think the time spent looking at things has increased, but the level of focus and "deep attention" paid to things has likely fallen over time.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- smokel 2y agoIt's not all about attention. Most companies are still in it for the money, and attention is only a means to an end. For the idiotic narcissist leaders that pop up every now and then, attention might be interesting by itself. But luckily for us, there's just very few of those. Most of our government bodies are comprised of people who actually mean to do good, and just a bit of attention to some important matters suffices.
- sph 2y ago> But no one wins as long as Global Human Attention isn't given purpose. We await someone or some group to articulate that vision. One of the best things I've done for myself is to stop reading the news. You will not believe how this ignorance has led me to a calmer life, to the gasp and concern of my peers, wondering how am I able to cope, to exist, without knowing what happens "in the world?" As you say, anyone has 1 unit of attention, and unlike many other things, it is fully in our control. The biggest lie modern generations have been told is that the more knowledge about things, the greater the happiness. That you need to know what happens half a world away from you, often in more detail than what happens at your doorstep. What saddens me the most about the future generations is seeing how politicised they has become, politics the game of rich old people; the powers that be have figured out that if they turn what happens in the palace into entertainment, people are distracted and don't get into them silly ideas like trying to change things. These days politics is slapstick comedy for "grown ups", and it's sad to see it infect the younger generations now.
- _gmax0 2y agoIt's my opinion that "thinking locally and acting locally" is a strategy better reserved for old age.
- sph 2y agoYou have it the wrong way round: when you're young, you (want to) believe your actions have world-changing impact and reach. Then you grow up, and see that the world is much bigger than you, bigger than your ego even, and cannot be wielded or moulded by anyone; so you learn to focus on what's around you and who's around you.
- _gmax0 2y agoI actually do agree with you. If you "think locally and act locally" while young, you run the risk of being blindsided by tail outcomes in the future. I think either global thinking or acting in youth is a prerequisite to arriving at the position you describe. I mean, is there a better explanation for mid-life crises?
- 5350-uiop-1130 2y agoi would add laziness too. attention usually takes the path of least effort.
- navjack27 2y agoChange attention to intention
- fallous 2y agoArguably religion used to provide that purpose but most of the Western world has walked away from it without choosing something to replace that sense of purpose. If, as Marx asserted, that religion was the opiate of the masses then the current "attention economy" is the methamphetamine of the masses.
- detourdog 2y agoWhat I have noticed about religion is that today's view of it is distorted. I see it as closer to psychology/sociology/civics. The description I see used today about ancient ideas of social cohesion is narrow minded with a hint of superiority.
- fallous 2y agoYes, historically religion provided not only a means of understanding one's place in the social system in which one lived but also provided a sense of self in a much longer historical aspect. Successful religions existed on the order of centuries, if not millennia, and set the foundation for one's understanding of self, membership within the group, morality and ethics, legal frameworks, and an explanatory model for the universe in which all these operated.. all of which had outlasted rulers, systems of government, nations, etc.
- soulofmischief 2y agoThere is a war going on for your mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ne0DmiuHeg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ne0DmiuHeg
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]