Stand out of our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy
Cambridge University Press, 5/31/2018
EAN 9781108452991, ISBN10: 110845299X
Paperback, 144 pages, 22.8 x 15.3 x 0.9 cm
Language: English
Former Google advertising strategist, now Oxford-trained philosopher James Williams launches a plea to society and to the tech industry to help ensure that the technology we all carry with us every day does not distract us from pursuing our true goals in life. As information becomes ever more plentiful, the resource that is becoming more scarce is our attention. In this 'attention economy', we need to recognise the fundamental impacts of our new information environment on our lives in order to take back control. Drawing on insights ranging from Diogenes to contemporary tech leaders, Williams's thoughtful and impassioned analysis is sure to provoke discussion and debate. Williams is the inaugural winner of the Nine Dots Prize, a new Prize for creative thinking that tackles contemporary social issues. This title is also available as Open Access.
1. Philosophy for trolls
Part I. Distraction by Design
2. The faulty GPS
3. The age of attention
4. Bring your own boundaries
5. Empires of the mind
Part II. Clicks against Humanity
6. The citizen is the product
7. The spotlight
8. The starlight
9. The daylight
Part III. Freedom of Attention
10. The ground of first struggle
11. The monster and the bank
12. Marginal people on marginal time
13. The brightest heaven of invention.