Went for a Center of Inquiry event today, where author Maggie Jackson spoke about her book Distracted, in which she discusses how the interruptions of modern life have had detrimental effects on inner life. I made an origins argument during discussions that
- Ala Peter Norvig’s comment on AI, our ability to design intelligent processes is still such that data throughput is more important than depth of analysis.
- Extrapolating to human processes, i.e. in companies, our minds are worth more as parts than as a whole. Like the commoditization of human movement during the industrial revolution, human cognition is being commoditized.
- Mental habits are not that flexible, so people are afflicted with ADD even after work.