The attention economy is the binding constraint on collective intelligence. Existing information systems fragment attention across trivial signals rather than directing it toward consequential branching futures. An orientation system that cannot compete for and structure attention will remain inert regardless of the quality of its ideas.
Strongest rival: Attention is not the binding constraint - the binding constraint is incentive alignment or institutional capacity or epistemic quality, and attention follows from getting those right
Created
2026-08-12T19:04:15.734Z
Sources
2- The Internet both fragments and concentrates attention. In a world flooded with choice, attention becomes the most valuable commodity.
Doug Shapiro - Power Laws in Culture. Substack, March 2023. https://dougshapiro.substack.com/p/power-laws-in-culture - Technology has fundamentally altered the information environment. Without deliberate stewardship, information flow dynamics can undermine collective intelligenc
Bak-Coleman et al (2021) - Stewardship of global collective behavior. PNAS. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2025764118
Connections
7Supports 3
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- Communication density is the constitutive mechanism that converts distributed knowledge into shared metanarrative. Above a threshold, a grou