Attention Autocracy

As we make our way, we make choices.

The most important skill we have learned as humans is that we can notice these choices and in so doing, make different ones.

To notice our choices is to interact with the world, to notice it, then to notice that we can notice it and that it changes with how we do so.

We are wonderful at the noticing part when we are children. Every leaf or bug ‘takes our attention’ and in so doing, joins us with with the world differently.

As we get older, we learn to train our attention to do things like take tests. We also learn to become aware of ourselves as someone separate from the world we are immersed within. We develop skills of language and communication that are less direct than our experience of a bug or a leaf, and so can be reproduced across different sorts of contexts. In this process, we also develop the assumption of self, and a story attaches to us.

For a time, this story and name (and self) might feel like our entirety. It may be we assume this is ‘all we are’ but as we continue and persist, we might also begin to notice that this self is actually another way we have developed of sensing, and of increasing our attention, of what we really are, which is much more.

We might notice that our actual life is much deeper than any words we put on it. We might begin to notice the world in a different way again.

Or it might happen that we have our attention taken before we realize it is ours to orient. This focus of self, this cognitive light cone, is pretty special after all, and a lot of people want to direct its light.

Trying to get that light to turn towards something is what makes most of the world run right now. It’s not inherently bad, but it’s easily manipulated. And technology has accelerated the speed at which those light cones turn. It’s also accelerated how they can be turned by others. It’s good to take a minute & realize this is happening. And that the pivot of that turning is nearly always up to us, if we notice it.

Most of us have heard of the attention economy but just in case, here’s Gemini’s summary: The "attention economy" refers to a system where a person's focus and time are considered valuable commodities that can be bought and sold. In this context, companies compete to capture and retain user attention, often through strategies like personalized content, notifications, and targeted advertising. This competition for attention shapes our online experiences and influences how we interact with technology and media.

Recently, when writing about love and fame, I realized that the natural progression of that sort of attention economy could be an “attention autocracy” that is

a state of media where millions tend to live at the whims of a single algorithm, or have their attention tossed by the algorithmic generators that are in power—that is, by whatever content is prioritized by those who have the means to prioritize it.

And yet, just realizing this takes away this power, doesn’t it? Or, at least, it could. Because in realizing we’ve been powered over like this, we open a gap between simulus and response; we realize this was never real power, even if it took our attention.

The real power is our attention, and what we choose to do with it.

What kind of economy supports that sort of power?

Perhaps a decentralized one.

Could we channel the attention economy into democratic action beyond the usual bounds? Is that possible?