Alex Wagner

And when you create competitive attention markets, they are going to drive towards that compelled attention, right? And that's what we have. So we're constantly struggling to reassert our own volition over where we put our mind because part of what we've inherited is the faculty for our mind to be pulled away from us.

And one of the key insights and aspects of the world we live in now, there's an incredible bit of literature on the cocktail party effect, which is if you're in a room and you hear your name, in another conversation, it will wrench you out. It will penetrate your consciousness and your attention will go to it. And no other stimuli works in the same way.

And one of the key insights and aspects of the world we live in now, there's an incredible bit of literature on the cocktail party effect, which is if you're in a room and you hear your name, in another conversation, it will wrench you out. It will penetrate your consciousness and your attention will go to it. And no other stimuli works in the same way.

And one of the key insights and aspects of the world we live in now, there's an incredible bit of literature on the cocktail party effect, which is if you're in a room and you hear your name, in another conversation, it will wrench you out. It will penetrate your consciousness and your attention will go to it. And no other stimuli works in the same way.

And we've got psychological literature on this. And that's because we also have inherited this desire and need for social attention. This is what's been so commercialized in the attention age. From the moment we come crying into the world, we necessarily depend on other human attention.

And we've got psychological literature on this. And that's because we also have inherited this desire and need for social attention. This is what's been so commercialized in the attention age. From the moment we come crying into the world, we necessarily depend on other human attention.

And we've got psychological literature on this. And that's because we also have inherited this desire and need for social attention. This is what's been so commercialized in the attention age. From the moment we come crying into the world, we necessarily depend on other human attention.

And because that inheritance is so deep, we now have a situation in which social attention from others can be experienced at scale in a way it never has before in the history of humankind. Getting social attention from strangers used to be something that like a tiny fraction of a sliver of people, you know, movie stars or politicians now like extremely hot people or extremely hot people.

And because that inheritance is so deep, we now have a situation in which social attention from others can be experienced at scale in a way it never has before in the history of humankind. Getting social attention from strangers used to be something that like a tiny fraction of a sliver of people, you know, movie stars or politicians now like extremely hot people or extremely hot people.

And because that inheritance is so deep, we now have a situation in which social attention from others can be experienced at scale in a way it never has before in the history of humankind. Getting social attention from strangers used to be something that like a tiny fraction of a sliver of people, you know, movie stars or politicians now like extremely hot people or extremely hot people.

Now, any teenager with a phone can experience this. Everyone can. And in fact, you see it like Elon Musk and a lot of people get driven insane by this in real time as you watch.

Now, any teenager with a phone can experience this. Everyone can. And in fact, you see it like Elon Musk and a lot of people get driven insane by this in real time as you watch.

Now, any teenager with a phone can experience this. Everyone can. And in fact, you see it like Elon Musk and a lot of people get driven insane by this in real time as you watch.

Lasted about half a day. So I think that's... You're mucking with the stuff in us that's pretty deep about who we are and how we view ourselves. And you're putting it in the hands of... corporations that are engineered to try to do this at scale. And I think the closest analog we have is basically, and I write about this at some point in the book, the industrial food system, right?

Lasted about half a day. So I think that's... You're mucking with the stuff in us that's pretty deep about who we are and how we view ourselves. And you're putting it in the hands of... corporations that are engineered to try to do this at scale. And I think the closest analog we have is basically, and I write about this at some point in the book, the industrial food system, right?

Lasted about half a day. So I think that's... You're mucking with the stuff in us that's pretty deep about who we are and how we view ourselves. And you're putting it in the hands of... corporations that are engineered to try to do this at scale. And I think the closest analog we have is basically, and I write about this at some point in the book, the industrial food system, right?

Like we have biological inheritances where we like sweet things and we like fat and we like salt. And if you're going to try to sell food to a billion people or 2 billion people, you get Coca-Cola and you get McDonald's, right? And so our relationship to food is this same kind of weird war between like the self that's like, I want to eat healthier.

Like we have biological inheritances where we like sweet things and we like fat and we like salt. And if you're going to try to sell food to a billion people or 2 billion people, you get Coca-Cola and you get McDonald's, right? And so our relationship to food is this same kind of weird war between like the self that's like, I want to eat healthier.

Like we have biological inheritances where we like sweet things and we like fat and we like salt. And if you're going to try to sell food to a billion people or 2 billion people, you get Coca-Cola and you get McDonald's, right? And so our relationship to food is this same kind of weird war between like the self that's like, I want to eat healthier.

I want this and the kind of desiring biology beneath that dynamic has now been replicated inside our minds in the attention age where the sort of very parallel set of things are happening constantly moment to moment determining where we come to rest our thoughts.