Thoughts are like light beams. The more concentrated, the more
they illuminate. A focused mind can conceive and realize tremendous objectives.
The power of concentration has given us piano sonatas and discipline to
practice them, novels and the literacy to read. Consider all that Stephen Hawking
grasped about the space-time continuum because he had so much uninterrupted
time and space to study it. If not for a rigorous brain, we still wouldn't know
how to control fire or raise food, let alone come up with paella, the Sistine
Chapel, and quantum theory.
But.
Our attention span.
Is becoming.
Byte-sized.
Industrial automation and electronic overstimulation have
shattered presence of mind, the very aspect separating us from those erratic
squirrels we're increasingly unable to ignore.
A lack of mental stamina threatens everything of substantive worth
because a fragmented thought process yields an incoherent conclusion, the way a
smashed mirror reflects a splintered face. Deep understanding, sustainable
innovation, lasting relationships, the arts, justice... it all depends on
patient perseverance.
Multitasking is a euphemism for distraction.
Eventually, by sabotage or exhausted resources, a wholesale
collapse of the digital infrastructure will force an analog reboot. In the
meantime, we might ready ourselves and maintain some synaptic tenacity by willfully
disconnecting from the Network, by safeguarding our precious time for slow, offline
engagements like meditation, drawing, fishing, building a deck, reading a book,
writing one, having face-to-face conversations―just sitting with the stereo on,
reflecting.
Should this mass cognitive decline go on unchecked, should we wait
too long to reassemble our collective consciousness, some crucial pieces may be
forever lost.
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