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Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)

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Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)

#31

Post by BriggyDwiggs42 »

portaouflop wrote: post #30
cen4 wrote: post #19

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. Me…

> 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

The failure of some grand visions doesn’t doom all future ones. That’s just silly.

Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)

#32

Post by onion2k »

cen4 wrote: post #19

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. Me…

But 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'.

Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)

#33

Post by yldedly »

alexashka wrote: post #22

Thinly veiled 'I despise stupid people', this one. They'd be boozing (more than they already are) if there wasn't such variety of cheap and available entertainment, the author doesn't seem to realize? It's not what stupid people do in their free time - it's what capable and smart people value and pursue that makes all the difference. Nietzsche laid this out quite beautifully in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Huxley and Orwe…

>it's what capable and smart people value and pursue that makes all the difference.

How do you know capable and smart people will keep having good values? Seems to me that it's true until it isn't - populism takes over politics, ideology takes over the humanities, science gets Goodharted to death, etc. Values are highly circular - we value what high-status people in our (sub)culture value, and you become high-status by getting what people value. This holds for smart people as well.

Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)

#34

Post by HPsquared »

cen4 wrote: post #19

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. Me…

I 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.

Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)

#35

Post by onion2k »

hshshshsvsv wrote: post #29
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #2

A person running for president of this country comes from show business and there are venture capitalists like Mark Andreeson who seriously talk about him as somebody who knows policy all because they can get a seat at the table.

Congrats. You brainwashed yourself into believing only certain class of people can run the country. Founding fathers would be proud.

I think it's fair to say the "why not inject yourself with bleach!" people shouldn't be running the show while there's a class of people who do what people tell them without questioning whether it's a good idea. People in power have a responsibility not to suggest things that would kill people. That isn't a high bar.

Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)

#36

Post by [deleted] »

onion2k wrote: post #35
hshshshsvsv wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congrats. You brainwashed yourself into believing only certain class of people can run the country. Founding fathers would be proud.

I think it's fair to say the "why not inject yourself with bleach!" people shouldn't be running the show while there's a class of people who do what people tell them without questioning whether it's a good idea. People in power have a responsibility not to suggest things that would kill people. That isn't a high bar.

[deleted]

Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)

#37

Post by [deleted] »

cen4 wrote: post #19

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. Me…

[deleted]

Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)

#38

Post by tehnub »

People make too much of what Orwell supposedly feared may happen some day. He was writing about stuff the Soviet and British governments were doing in his time, and in particular, imagined what Soviet rule over Britain may look like. Assigning this philosophy to him and criticizing him for it seems unfair.

Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)

#39

Post by smokel »

cen4 wrote: post #19

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. Me…

It'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.

Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death (2009)

#40

Post by mrkeen »

hshshshsvsv wrote: post #29
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #2

A person running for president of this country comes from show business and there are venture capitalists like Mark Andreeson who seriously talk about him as somebody who knows policy all because they can get a seat at the table.

Congrats. You brainwashed yourself into believing only certain class of people can run the country. Founding fathers would be proud.

The founding fathers, not the founding parents.

Those slave-owners held it self-evident that all men had the unalienable right of liberty (among other rights.)

I can't remember 1984 well enough to remember any specific examples of doublethink, but they can't be as good as this one.

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