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ELNAZ TEST CHROME

Credits Text: April 06 2020

In 1971 Carnegie-Mellon University held a discussion on “Computers, Communications, and the Public Interest.” Its moderator observed that “If anything characterizes the current age, it is the complex problems of our technological civilization and the unpleasant physical and mental trauma they induce.” Herbert Simon, a professor of Computer Science and Psychology spoke about the relatively new concept of “information overload[1] pointing out that “an information-rich world … means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes.” Information, he continued “consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently…[2]


[1] A phrase coined by the political scientist Bertram Gross in his 1964 book “The Managing of Organizations” and popularized by the futurist Alvin Toffler in “Future Shock” (1970).

[2] Emphases added.”A transcript of the covnersation is available here.

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