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Introduction

Blockchainized Bachelor’s Thesis

Blockchainized Bachelor’s Thesis – Initial Brainstorm

Thesis

1.Abstract

2.Preface

3.Introduction

4.Definitions of terms and premises

4.1.Information

4.2.Information explosion

4.3.Information age

4.4. Information society

4.5. Information literacy

5.Information overload as an issue

5.1.1.Thought

5.1.2.Brain

5.1.3Attention

Sources walkthrough

1.Battling Information Overload in the Information Age

2.1.The knowledge-attention-gap: Do we underestimate the problem of information overload in knowledge management? pt.1

2.2.The knowledge-attention-gap: Do we underestimate the problem of information overload in knowledge management? pt. 2

3.Database Research faces the Information Explosion

4.The experience of mobile information overload: struggling between needs and constraints

5.Longer online reviews are not necessarily better

6.An ant-colony based approach for real-time implicit collaborative information seeking

7.A psychological framework to enable effective cognitive processing in the design of emergency management information systems

Case study: Interview

1.First draft

5.1.3. Attention

Now that we have a rough idea of ​​how the human brain works and what thought is, the issue of focusing our attention on a certain point can be started. Attention, together with the concentration, is, from my point of view, a key component in eliminating information overload.

 

The mind constantly inclines to change attention and be led by the external or internal stimuli [6]. In the information age, there is exponentially bigger amount of those external stimuli than there was just over a hundred years ago. It is now virtually inconceivable that we would be able to pay the attention to all the information bits that were created by the information society. The truth is that it is not possible. Employments, holidays, where and how we spend our leisure time, our hobbies, etc., can be considered, in the information age, as some kind of "attention industry". Attention, therefore, becomes another commodity (or currency) that each individual entity of the information society owns. The success and failure (or survival) of many companies is directly dependent on the ability to buy or by other means get our attention in the huge competition of equally-minded firms, and that to a large extent shapes the objective reality in which the information society lives [8].

 

Attention, however, is a heavily trapped and intangible commodity. If attention is not controlled by an individual, it is susceptible to abuse by private companies or government agencies [8]. In such a case, it is also very likely that information overload will occur more often and unconsciously. If one wishes to control his attention, one has to pursue the goal through all possible methods. As the brain subchapter implies, the only way how to practice mental abilities is to do mental exercises. It can take many forms, such as reading longer texts (up to books), discussions, critical assessments of chosen facts, or meditation. If such an approach is not stimulated and supported, the ability to concentrate will degrade. Several researches even confirm that the ability to concentrate on one longer subject has been sharply declining since the beginning of the information age. [8] The figures are documented in the subchapter “Reduced potential to gain the ability to focus attention”. It seems that genetic information does not give the ability to concentrate on any given topic for a long period of time any great weight. The reason is very likely that technical and social evolution goes forward with a rocket pace, while biological evolution always takes its time and only solves the problem when the problem threatens survival alone. Thus, the implication is that the human brain, if not directed to the opposite, naturally tends to change the subject of attention quickly.

 

But that is not the only weakness of our attention. Hebb proved that the more complex the nervous system of the organism, the greater role emotions play in it [11]. Another scientist continued his work and examined what the body gains with emotional inputs. He concluded that the main benefits include the ability to process multiple inputs from objective reality quickly, to have more goals and motivations, and bigger flexibility in social behaviour. So it seems that mankind is evolutionarily predisposed to be prone to emotional stimuli operating outside of our consciousness. Competition for our attention is huge in the brain and emotions seem to have the ability to suddenly assert and take reins at the expense of rationality and objectivity.[9]

 

My theory is following. The ability to pay attention is nothing but the activation of certain neural modules. Of course, the same rules described in the Brain subchapter apply, so if the attention is trained, the necessary modules and the connections between them are reinforced, and if not, they degrade. The natural state of these modules is not reinforced. Every individual must therefore learn (exercise) the ability to concentrate. If that was the case, it would explain the increased incidence of the state of consciousness that psychologists call ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Small children are not able to rationalize the problem of concentration (for adults themselves often cannot do so, as the practical part of the thesis shows) and therefore in the information age, where there is a plethora of stimuli, and almost no mentoring on the part of the parents (and in compulsory education as it currently is operated, individual mentoring is virtually impossible) degradation of ability to concentrate occurs. That could be the state that occurs if one just doesn’t care and "give up" to the information age and its aspects without any rationalization.

 

The emotions were already mentioned because they play a crucial role too. Emotions are a pure evaluation of pleasure and resentment without a momentary rationalization of the problem. However, such rationalization had to take place once, the brain processed it, and thus the endocept was enriched with this information. In the next exposure to that stimuli, if the endocept connects the situation together with that formed emotion, the brain can react without the momentary rationalization, which is very advantageous for the organism both energetically and it also is time saving, therefore the emotions have the potential to take over the reins of our attention and thus avoid further influx of information.

Sources

6.CEJPEK, Jiří. Informace, komunikace, myšlení: Úvod do informační vědy. 1. vyd. Praha : Karolinum, 1998. 179 s. ISBN 80-7184-767- 4.

8.DAVENPORT, Thomas H. a John C. BECK. The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business. Revised edition. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2002. ISBN 978-1578518715.

9.FULLER, Jack. What Is Happening to News: The Information Explosion and the Crisis in Journalism. Reprint edition. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0226005027.

11.D. O. Hebb. "Emotion in Man and Animal: An Analysis of the Intuitive Processes of Recognition." Psychological Review 53, (1946): 88-106.

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