Attention Span and The Role of Technology

One of the most incongruent messages I constantly hear about climate change is talk of "solutions" and how "we can do it" which doesn't really agree with the science much at all (see Agency - Do We Have Free Will? and The Grand Illusion for details). I've been hearing these same messages for 40 years now, and I keep asking myself that if we can do it, why haven't we? 

In fact, just the other day, I saw a claim that "if we don't change direction within three years that climate change will become irreversible." I almost laughed, since climate change is ALREADY irreversible on human timescales and has been for quite some time as pointed out in my article, Denial of Reality, quote: 

"Most people think that climate change can be "fixed" or reversed, but current science shows that climate change is irreversible on human timescales. Another article shows that this is due to ocean heat uptake (OHU). Another recent study indicates that climate change is irreversible due to permafrost thaw. Still yet another study demonstrates climate change being irreversible due to oceanic oxygen depletion. However, climate change in and of itself isn't the worst part of the overall set of predicaments. It is how climate change and ecological overshoot, its parent predicament, affect the rest of the biosphere and how life on this planet responds to those effects. If all we had to do was adapt to temperatures 2, 3, or 4 degrees Celsius more than today, we could probably accomplish such a task. However, not all plants and animals can say the same, and unfortunately, we depend on far more than just those plants and animals for our own existence; we also depend upon the ecosystem services which they provide. These two articles here and here explain the scenario, but fail to point out that we are actually in at least the 8th mass extinction event (here and here)."

I had a conversation with one woman recently who was all starry-eyed about "all the great progress happening" and I asked her what progress she was talking about, since all the data shows no progress at all; in fact, the most recent data shows a dramatic increase in GHG (GreenHouse Gas) emissions: 

Now, this is just three of the most important greenhouse gases, but this effectively demonstrates that despite the hype and hoopla being spread around by people with less than ethical motives (or perhaps pure ignorance), one can clearly see no progress except in the wrong direction (if one can call that progress; it certainly isn't what I would call positive progress, to clarify). Later she admitted that the science behind my articles is "above her pay grade," so I left the conversation at that point. All too frequently, I forget that many people have not spent the last decade reading scientific studies, articles, books, and watching videos and documentaries in their spare time. 

My thought was simply that she either isn't paying attention or perhaps just doesn't know what is actually happening. But another possibility also exists, and it is one affecting us all. Even I've noticed this effect on my own ability to focus and pay attention. Perhaps she is too distracted by social media or other interruptions afforded to her through her smartphone. This would be making the assumption that she has a smartphone, something I cannot confirm. But it is still a possibility, which brings me to the article I am writing about now, Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen. 

I highlighted quite a few different topics back in January and February that I wanted to focus on in my next several articles not knowing at that point that I would not be completing many articles for a while. Now that I am back writing again, I have some serious catching up to do, which explains why I am just now writing about an article from January. 

This particular article presents quite an insidious predicament which points to an interesting intersection with human "intelligence" and technology. Technology and civilization are precisely what is killing life on this planet, including us. Technology supports civilization and vice-versa. Without the technology of agriculture, civilization couldn't exist and without civilization and its infrastructural platforms in place, modern-day technology such as electricity, smartphones, plumbing, and garbage removal services couldn't exist either. Causing the current mass extinction we are in was not in the mind of folks when they thought using technology was a good idea. Most people, including me, simply never had a clue as to the effects of technology use (which has brought about ecological overshoot as a result) upon the environment around us. 

Certainly most people now know that technology use requires energy use, and energy use of all stripes causes emissions (because NO energy infrastructure can exist without the fossil hydrocarbon platform). But few people actually look beyond fossil fuels as the culprit causing emissions and even fewer realize that without fossil fuels, industrial civilization cannot exist; meaning that carrying capacity of the planet for humans crashes back down to under 1 billion. I would suggest that 500,000,000 is probably tops in terms of carrying capacity, and this number will most likely continue falling as more species succumb to the mass extinction I mentioned above. If this took place today, this would mean that 7 out of every 8 people would perish in a mass dieoff. Because we've painted ourselves into a corner with regard to overshoot, there is no solution for this situation - which is why I constantly remind everyone that ecological overshoot is a predicament with an outcome, NOT a problem with a solution.

In other words, the idea that we would quit using fossil fuels anytime soon is folly at best. Many people talk about electrification and EVs, but this too is just more folly. Two posts which add more to this story are, What Kind of Mindsets Lead Us Into Traps? and It's a Trap, Don't Do It. As one can see, we just can't stop ourselves when it comes to bargaining, and kicking the can down the road only makes the existing predicaments worse while adding new ones. 

One of the newer ones is the trouble with attention span. Most people today are familiar with the acronyms of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). ADD is an outdated term and is no longer used as a medical diagnosis but is still used to describe certain symptoms under the umbrella term ADHD. Constantly looking at screens can cause all sorts of troubles. Have you ever been watching people in public staring at their screens while trying to do something else (like walking or driving) and clearly they were distracted? The outcomes can be either funny or extremely sad depending on the circumstance. This article brings about how this has happened, why it is a serious issue, what our culture has to do with it, and potential upcoming pitfalls as a result. In an effort to "speed things up" and "make things easier" we have inadvertently ramped up energy use and dumbed down society as a result. We've also distracted ourselves away from nature and we're missing so many things that exist in real life rather than contained on a screen. 

A real concern I have is that of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the popularity of VR (Virtual Reality). Considering how looking at screens constantly is causing vision problems and issues with attention span, and considering how other types of technology have also caused their own unique issues for humans, perhaps technology use should be critiqued more. Maybe just because we can do something doesn't necessarily mean that we should do something. In the case of technology, one can clearly see the advantages of using it; but what kinds of disadvantages are ever brought to the forefront? More often than not, the disadvantages are quickly swept under the rug - we must not let society see how damaging these devices really are! <sarcasm>

Knowing how the trends in critical thinking and ability to recall things are going gives rise to concern. How many of you remember your first phone number? What about your current phone number? I remember my first three phone numbers but cannot tell you my current cell number without looking it up. Certainly this is mostly meaningless without large numbers of people reporting the same observations, but it does appear that there are indications that this may indeed be the case. 

Recently, I came upon an article I read many years ago and thought to myself that I should share it here, since it really ties in rather well to my articles about civilization and its inherent unsustainability. Many of you have probably also read this article: Have You Heard of The Great Forgetting? It Happened 10,000 Years Ago & Completely Affects Your Life 

The article describes how humanity itself is millions of years old and that agriculture and civilization are not innately human. It explains how written history only records civilization and that everything before then has been conveniently "forgotten", mostly due to the fact that none of that particular part of history was written, but handed down orally through generations. Of course, this is convenient for storytellers. Still, one fact that the article fails to mention is our biological and genetic (evolutionary) programming which accounts for why war (violence) is always a possibility. 

I have included that link to Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence many times in quite a few different articles along with other sources for the same general information. This is precisely why this quote really doesn't pass the sniff test:

"Briefly, the law of limited competition is this: You may compete to the full extent of your capabilities, but you may not hunt down your competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food. In other words, you may compete but you may not wage war on your competitors."

This so-called law is like most other human (not scientific) laws - unenforceable. As is demonstrated in the book linked above, the evidence for violence comes in the form of archaeological evidence of club-smashed skulls, broken bones, and other evidence of violence that humans did to other humans long before civilization existed. So, while most humans would probably follow that law, others obviously didn't. We must resist the idea that everything was one way or another - things generally don't conform to such false dichotomies that way. 

Ancient humans did live far more sustainably than today's homo sapiens. Our culture is part of the big picture, too. However, unsustainable technology use is what sets us apart from all other animals. Many animals go into overshoot once negative feedbacks are reduced or disappear. Technology use harnesses energy use to reduce negative feedbacks. It all seems great until one looks into the negative consequences of unsustainable technology use. This could be as simple as setting fire to a field to clear unwanted brush and a gust of wind blowing the fire into a stand of trees which wasn't foreseen at the time the fire was set. Likewise, most of the predicaments we face today began a very long time ago, started no differently than the fire - without any indication at the time of the unforeseen issues doing so ultimately would bring to the forefront. Nobody PLANNED on climate change, or pollution loading, or energy and resource decline, or any other predicament at the time the initial trouble was started. We did so at that point because it was thought that there would be an advantage to doing so, and generally speaking, there WAS an advantage. Anything found NOT to be advantageous was discarded. This is dopamine loading in action. Technology with a payoff encouraged the continued use of said technology. Now, today, here we are...the real "payoff" which was unseen at the beginning is ecological overshoot.

So, taking all of this into consideration, is it possible that technology use itself has caused a certain evolution of human development which is itself contributing to the ever-rising symptom predicaments of ecological overshoot? This is an interesting concept and question to consider. 

A new article about Vaclav Smil highlights his new book, HOW THE WORLD REALLY WORKS - The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We’re Going. Considering the lack of attention span today, I don't expect many people to get this far in this article, let alone going on to read both articles about Smil (this one goes into more detail). if you have gotten to this point, then congratulations! 

Update 6-21-22: Every teacher I have worked with over the years has complained about student distraction and attention deficit, and I've seen it for myself as well. This article is from a teacher who has decided that he has had enough of teaching due to these very issues. One look at the comments section demonstrates that the same scenario has percolated throughout all sectors of society and that it isn't just friends of mine who are teachers and my own experiences.

I am still passionate about helping people understand where we are and where our current trajectory is taking us and precisely why these predicaments I highlight are, in fact, dilemmas which have outcomes and are NOT problems with solutions like what Smil claims above. There ARE things which can be done to reduce ecological overshoot, the predicament causing all the symptom predicaments, but most people will not be interested in taking real action to do this because they don't want their conveniences taken away (as if they will ultimately have a choice anyway). Unfortunately, the only way to reduce ecological overshoot and live sustainably is to reduce technology use. We really don't have a choice, as it will be taken away from us anyway if we don't willingly let go. 

Despite my passion helping others understand our predicaments, I also realize just how involved I have become. I went from watching a few documentaries on Netflix each month over 15 years ago to spending countless hours every week researching different studies and reading countless articles, books, and media over this time frame. I still have books waiting for me to read them, projects waiting to be finished, and trips to take (provided this is still possible - this is becoming much more difficult now) which is why I have decided to discontinue updating the files section of this blog. I have provided a Resource Links page which contains many different places to find information for those who wish to research further. Since I have provided ALL the information contained in this blog for free, and I am not getting paid to do ANY of this; including running the groups and pages which has also taken a considerable amount of time since 2013, it is time for me to reduce the amount of time spent on all of this. I have no intention of quitting writing these articles, but I do want to spend more time with those closest to me. In other words, it is time for me to begin following my own advice to Live Now more carefully. I still have a few more articles waiting to be finished and I am certain there will be more that I want to explain or draw attention to. So, I will still be writing articles occasionally, but not regularly like I have over the past year and a half. I want to thank those who have been supportive of me and/or my efforts here and I hope you will stay in touch either here or on social media!