Attensity!

Attensity! reminds us that how we attend to the world shapes what the world can be for us, and for one another. With a lively, even joyful blend of philosophical seriousness and practical imagination, it invites us to see attention not as a private asset to be hoarded but as a shared capacity to be cultivated and protected – Kwame Anthony AppiahAttensity! is a thrilling declaration of independence from tech’s tyranny over our human spirits. We feel the human and humane surge to renewed life through its call to each of us to reclaim ownership of our own attention, and of the actions we can cultivate with it—for ourselves and in our own names, instead of at the bidding of machines – Danielle Allen * author of Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality *At a time when most reports are of the world getting worse, here’s a zinging, erudite book that arrives with the happy news that one thing can get better if we put our minds to it. Attensity is about how to reclaim one of our most powerful and valuable qualities—our attention—through a path back to the human things that matter: community, care, imagination, and art. It’s both a keen historical analysis and a call to movement-building from a group of people who have spent years working in the libraries and the classrooms but also, with the shared force of their attention, in the ever-changing streets – Nathan HellerA stirring battle cry on behalf of our shared humanity against the forces that seek to diminish and degrade it. Downright invigorating. Just what the moment calls for – Chris Hayes * author of The Sirens’ Call *This is an ambitious text that will demand much of all of us readers beyond the page. It is asking vital questions about the potential of re-wiring our lives in a time of growing crisis, where avalanches of information and access threaten the present and future of care, of close attention. Very thankful to have spent time with this – Hanif AbdurraqibIt is not always that you come across a book that changes how you see the world. Attensity is an extraordinary book - every chapter has revelations that will make you stop and reconsider how you are living your life, and reclaim the life that we have been given – Tim WuPay attention: If you are human you must read this book. Also, please note that the term “attention” has been colonized and made to mean the opposite of what it used to. According to AI people, it now means clearing out context to make less work for pattern-finding algorithms. Don’t let algorithms clear YOU out – Jaron LanierThe Friends of Attention are the underground attentional resistance you’ve been waiting for. Their manifesto is a luminous book, filled with great clarity and hope, and it crackles with the energy of a movement that could change the world. Reading it will give you hope that the war for our attention is not yet lost, and that our minds, our lives, can still be our own. Attensity! is not just a book to be read — it’s a call to be answered, a vision to be embraced, a future to be built. The liberation of human attention just took a huge leap forward – James Williams, former Google ad strategist, an Oxford-trained philosopher, and author of Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy

The Friends of Attention is a collective of activists, artists, and thinkers. D. Graham Burnett is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of history of science at Princeton University. Alyssa Loh, a filmmaker, co-directed the short film Twelve Theses on Attention. Peter Schmidt is the Programme Director of the Strother School of Radical Attention.