Intelligence Squared

Our attention is under attack. A handful of powerful tech companies are extracting and monetising our focus, reshaping our inner lives and threatening the foundations of democracy. Many proposed solutions rely on individual willpower but can we really outsmart supercomputers on our own? In this episode, we’re joined by Peter Schmidt of the Strother School of Radical Attention and D. Graham Burnett, Professor of the History of Science at Princeton University, two of the authors of Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement. Written collectively by 25 academics, activists, and artists known as the Friends of Attention, all royalties from Attensity! Are donated to charity. In this episode, they speak with Conor Boyle, Head of Programming at Intelligence Squared, to explore the origins of the trillion-dollar battle for our attention and how we might begin to reclaim our minds. --- This is the first instalment of a two-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all