The natural state of the human brain, like that of the brain of most of our relatives in the animal kingdom, is one of distractedness. Our predisposition is to shift our gaze, and hence our attention, from one object to another, to be aware of as much of what's going on around us as possible. Neuroscientists have discovered primitive "bottom-up mechanisms" in our brains that, as the authors of a 2004 article in Current Biology put it, "operate on raw sensory input, rapidly and involuntarily shifting attention to salient visual features of potential importance." What draws our attention most of all is any hint of a change in our surroundings. "Our senses are finely attuned to change," explains Maya Pines of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Stationary or unchanging objects become part of the scenery and are mostly unseen." But as soon as "something in the environment changes, we ...
Nathan added HTML5 for Web Designers to his library.
- Nathan Borror
- 4 days, 4 hours ago
Our private sphere has ceased to be the stage where the drama of the subject at odds with his objects and with his image is played out: we no longer exist as playwrights or actors but as terminals of multiple networks. Television is the most direct prefiguration of this, and yet today one's private living space is conceived of as a receiving and operating area, as a monitoring screen endowed with telematic power, this is to say, with the capacity to regulate everything by remote control. Including the work process, within the prospects of telematic work performed at home, as well as consumption, play, social relations, leisure. One could conceive of simulating leisure or vacation situations in the same way that flight is simulated for pilots.
Never heard it put that way before. Entertaining.
Nathan added The Ecstasy of Communication to his library.
- Nathan Borror
- April 29, 2010
I have a lot planned for this summer. Two more weeks of graduate school then all kinds of summer to work on Readernaut :) Good things on the way!