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The attention economy, and the annihilation of autonomy
1233 sats \ 2 comments \ @Taft 30 Apr science
The attention economy isn’t just stealing our focus; it’s reshaping our reality. Drawing on Simone Weil, philosopher Kathryn Lawson argues that social media algorithms don’t just distract us but commit a deeper form of violence, reshaping our minds and stripping away genuine human connection. Each scroll surrenders our thinking to machines designed solely to keep us engaged, replacing what Weil saw as true attention—essential for ethics and truth—with a hollow substitute. Now, as a California jury holds Meta and Google liable for fuelling a young woman’s childhood addiction to their platforms, the solution isn't simply logging off, but relearning how to genuinely attend to others and reclaim our mental autonomy.

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316 sats \ 0 replies \ @south_korea_ln 30 Apr
This careful manufacturing of a surface-level attention to the next thing creates an ersatz attention, the German word for “substitute,” popularized during the Second World War. A cup of roasted chicory root, barley, acorns, rye, or dandelion root would stand in as an ersatz coffee when coffee bean rations were unavailable. While these substitutes could in some ways stand in, they were ultimately what Nabokov would call a pale fire comparison to the true article. Writing on his imprisonment in Auschwitz, Primo Levi makes note of the ersatz coffee, which adds yet another layer of the surreal simulacra of existence in the camps. This is precisely the type of attention produced by the attention economy. This ersatz attention is the shadow-self of true attention. It appears as if we are attending to our screens, but, in fact, it is the mirror-darkly of attention.

I don't even remember what I scrolled over 10 minutes ago, unless a new trigger reminds me of it. Yet, I remember vividly what I talked about with my colleague during lunch.
Ersatz attention vs true attention, clearly.

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124 sats \ 0 replies \ @optimism 23h
ersatz bla bla Second War bla bla

ersetzen. Formed of "er" (re) "setzen" (place) in Middle High German (originated 1050 - 1350)

For example, yesterday I took a replacement bus service because the metro didn't run. It's called Schienenersatzverkehr: Rail replacement transport.

Trying to invent concepts because you can say some bulshytt about the second war to make yourself sound important and authoritative, is kind of funny business to me. It would be rather Gell-Mann of me if I were to believe that the other claims in the article were not as inelegantly misstated just to make it sound right.

All this leads me to a question: does society actually lose anything from AI slop if human slop is at least as prevalent?

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