Slideshow Transcript

1. Slide 1: Flow: A New Consciousness For A Web Of Traffic Stowe Boyd stowe.boyd@gmail.com +1 703 966 9854 625 2nd St, San Francisco CA 94107 cc - with attribution, non-commercial use, no derivatives
2. Slide 2: Re: Me /Messenger from /Message ‖ \"Always beginning, never finished” ‖ flow May 2007 2
3. Slide 3: Tag Cloud Flow, Web of Flow, Traffic and Flow, ADD, ‖ Attention Deficit Disorder, Continuous Partial Attention, CPA, Darshan, Cyclic Time, Flow Time, Lived Time, Information Overload flow May 2007 3
4. Slide 4: Apologies and Explanations It was blogging what done this to ‖ me Fragments, conjectures, cheap ‖ shots, biases No pretty box with a bow ‖ “Speak what you feel, not what ‖ you ought to say.” William Shakespeare, King Le ar flow May 2007 4
5. Slide 5: Human? “We make our tools and they shape us.” Kenneth Bouldin - flow May 2007 5
6. Slide 6: Consciousness 2.0 How are we changing based on how we are ‖ using our brains, nowadays? How are our brains changing based on the ‖ tools we use to understand the world, and our place in it? What do we lose? What do we gain? ‖ How will sociality change based on using new ‖ tools that shape culture? flow May 2007 6
7. Slide 7: Starting With The End In Mind A new consciousness ‖ How we perceive our world and our place in it ‖ Moral sense ‖ A social consciousness: ‖ hive mind? Let’s start with what it’s like and ‖ what it isn’t flow May 2007 7
8. Slide 8: The Juggler’s Paradox How do jugglers juggle? ‖ They don’t focus on the balls, the movements ‖ They unfocus into a field of attention ‖ A learned state of consciousness ‖ flow May 2007 8
9. Slide 9: A Note On Martial Arts Learning To See: Field Of Attention ‖ Shortening the Delay: Catching the Dollar ‖ flow May 2007 9
10. Slide 10: Information Overload Alvin Toffler’s Future Sho ck ‖ flow May 2007 10
11. Slide 11: Are We Being Driven Crazy? Or is it something else? ‖ Are we learning to cope? ‖ Are we at the dawn of a new ‖ era? What sort of ‖ accommodations are humanly possible? flow May 2007 11
12. Slide 12: Attention Economy/Scarcity “What information consumes is rather obvious: ‖ it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention” - Herbert Simon flow May 2007 12
13. Slide 13: Attention Economy/Scarcity “The scarcest resource for today's business ‖ leaders is no longer just land, capital, or human labor, and it certainly isn't information. Attention is what's in short supply.” - Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck flow May 2007 13
14. Slide 14: Just Another Failed Metaphor Most attempts to treat aspects of human ‖ cognition in economic or industrial terms fail miserably (e.g., knowledge management) flow May 2007 14
15. Slide 15: Psychology of Attention Attention is not a single cognitive center, it may ‖ be an emergent property of several Basically, we don’t know what it is ‖ And conventional wisdom is likely to be wrong ‖ Especially the authors of best-selling business ‖ books, who largely advance agendas that (hypothetically) serve the goals of business, not people or society flow May 2007 15
16. Slide 16: Non-Rivalrous Media We can participate in more than one medium at ‖ the same time Subject to age and exposure ‖ Radio (post 1950s) ‖ TV (post 1970s) ‖ Movies (that’s why people are ‖ talking) Flow media (that’s where we ‖ are headed) flow May 2007 16
17. Slide 17: Attention Deficit Disorder Inability to focus ‖ Hyperactivity ‖ Treated (paradoxically) with ‖ stimulants Is our culture creating ADD in ‖ children? Linked to video games, ‖ watching television, etc. Is today’s childhood toxic? ‖ flow May 2007 17
18. Slide 18: Linda Stone: Continuous Partial Attention \"It's crucial for CEOs to be intentional about breaking free from continuous partial attention in order to get their bearings. Some of today's business books suggest that speed is the answer to today's business challenges. Pausing to reflect, focus, think a problem through; and then taking steady steps forward in an intentional direction is really the key.” Linda Stone, Inc., Jan 2002 flow May 2007 18
19. Slide 19: Contrarian View Flow is a different kind of load-balancing algorithm: ‖ not FIFO. It’s not about speed, it’s about remaining connected. ‖ We can't stay head down for hours or days at a ‖ stretch when critically important events may be occurring that require immediate response. FIFO: ok for super market check out, bad in the ER. ‖ Reverting to pre-agricultural/pre-industrial ‖ consciousness: one eye on the flint we are knapping, and one eye scanning the savannah for predators and prey, chatting the whole time. flow May 2007 19
20. Slide 20: The War On Flow Remaining connected is not a disease ‖ It is a new ethos ‖ Time as a shared space ‖ And the psychology to support ‖ it is emerging Conflict with industrial norms: ‖ personal productivity v network productivity flow May 2007 20
21. Slide 21: The Buddylist Is The Center Of The Universe I am made greater by the sum of my ‖ connections, and so are my connections flow May 2007 21
22. Slide 22: Flow Is Generational flow May 2007 22
23. Slide 23: Nature or Nurture? We are training our neurons by exposure ‖ Just like other inbuilt skills that require ‖ exposure to certain social stimuli, like language Anyone can learn martial arts: ‖ just go to the dojo, do what sensei says, and you will be changed from the neurons up flow May 2007 23
24. Slide 24: Whatchamacallit? Flow ‖ Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi ‖ A state of consciousness associated with peak ‖ experience and effortless involvement “In The Zone” ‖ flow May 2007 24
25. Slide 25: Flow Flow: a mental state when you are fully ‖ immersed in what you are doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. (Wikipedia entry on Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi) flow May 2007 25
26. Slide 26: Flow 1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible). 2. Concentrating and focusing, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it). 3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness. 4. Distorted sense of time - one's subjective experience of time is altered. 5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed). 6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult). 7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity. 8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action. 9. When in the flow state, people become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself, action awareness merging. flow May 2007 26
27. Slide 27: Four Flavors of Time: Physics, Linear, Cyclical, Flow Physics time: part of the fabric of the universe ‖ Linear (Industrial) time: Kant/Leibnitz shaped ‖ the western notion of time as something we are passing through Cyclical (Mystical) time: time as the unending ‖ moment Flow (Lived) time: we are in the unending ‖ moment through which everything flows flow May 2007 27
28. Slide 28: Media and Traffic: Different Registers Conversation flows through ‖ networks = Traffic Media hold the pieces, but not ‖ the sense of the conversation To understand the sense of ‖ what is being said, you have to be in the flow, not outside flow May 2007 28
29. Slide 29: Traffic and Flow Social applications: networked and social ‖ interaction. Social networks = how we discover meaning, ‖ belonging, and insight. Traffic flow is the primary dynamic of all future ‖ social apps. Flow: our tools will allow us to unfocus -- a field ‖ of attention based on sociality -- and remain engaged in various activities in parallel. flow May 2007 29
30. Slide 30: Pushing Dunbar’s Constant Are we augmenting our consciousness through ‖ tools (use and exposure)? Can we expand social span? ‖ Can you ‘know’ and care about more than ‖ 150? flow May 2007 30
31. Slide 31: Flow And You Time is a shared space ‖ Productivity is second to Connectivity: network ‖ productivity trumps personal productivity Everything important will ‖ find it’s way to you many, many times: don’t worry if you miss it the first time Flow is a state of mind ‖ Flow is a verb ‖ flow May 2007 31
32. Slide 32: Flow: A New Consciousness For A Web Of Traffic Stowe Boyd stowe.boyd@gmail.com +1 703 966 9854 625 2nd St, San Francisco CA 94107 cc - with attribution, non-commercial use, no derivatives