Modern Science: A Case of Collective Intelligence? On the Role of Thought Economy and Gratifying Attention in Knowledge Production

摘要

Intelligence, however it may be defined, denotes the capability of using one's attention efficiently. Being intelligent means to selectively pay attention to what is relevant in the situation, and most useful according to one's own aspirations. William James gave the following definition of attention: "It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization and concentration of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition that has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state that is called 'distraction' in French and 'Zerstreutheit' in German". Attention, in order to align the definition to the concept of efficiency, is the capacity of processing information in a both highly selective and fully conscious way. The point of James' definition is that this capacity is of limited volume. In fact, you can check immediately how narrow this capacity is if you try to pay attention to two independent processes simultaneously or to read this page by doubling the speed you are accustomed to. The capacity is frighteningly narrow, given the abundance of things that deserve observance. Paying attention, to put it economically, has considerable opportunity costs. It costs to simultaneously ignore everything except the particular object that is being focused on. The allocation of attention thus has to cope with a characteristic asymmetry between the potential uses and the realizable uses. In short, attention is a notoriously scarce resource for any person with vivid interests.