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In the Attention Economy, What is the "Cash Value" of Time?

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@denmarkguy
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I was reading a recent post by @tarazkp, which included some speculation on the stages of "work," as we know it...

There was physical labor and skills; then came mental labor and skills... and what next? Where will the next stage of our evolution fall?

At attention....

Then Came the Attention Economy...

We talk a lot about this thing called "The Attention Economy," even though it feels quite ambiguous, and it doesn't seem like anyone has yet really been able to determine the value of attention.

In turn, this begs the question of whether or not "attention" even has a cash value? Centuries of human endeavor has taught us that the production of items or even the production of services have a value that we can — more or less — measure in a tangible way.

But what is the cash value of time, aka "attention?"

Attention doesn't actually produce or create anything. I can't feed my family with it. And yet? My willingness to voluntarily ready your post, or watch your video clips... has some kind of value, or people wouldn't be clamoring so damn hard to build a "following" and to "become known!"

Winter sunset

The Automation Invasion

As time rolls by, and more and more of what we "do" becomes automated and no longer needs to employ humans... how will we redefine how we "work?"

If machines make and serve our food, drive our delivery trucks, do our medical diagnostics, manufacture our products and check us out at the store... what's left for us to do? Moreover, assuming that we will still need to "buy" things like food and clothing, how will we come about the means to do so, if robots are doing the things we traditionally earned our keep with?

Clearly, we will have to redefine what we consider to have "value."

When I spend four minutes reading your post and another three writing a meaningful and engaging comment... what value does that have? Is that value measurable in a currency? Or in slices of pizza, or (God forbid!) some standardized "nutrition pellet?"

What must we leave behind?

The Economy of Creativity?

Critics tend to poo-poo away the notion of a future where people spend their lives on creative pursuits like music, writing, art, performing and such... but mostly they tend to be anchored in our current parameters of economics, centered around the idea that compensation is a consequence of producing some kind of tangible good.

But with our technological advancement, we're effectively creating our own obsolescence, at least if that's the yardstick we're going to keep using. But we still have to feed, clothe and shelter these "meat vehicles."

A friend sent me the comic strip below, and it still largely represents the perspective of life, as it exists today:

Which leads us back to the new territory of exploring "The Cash Value of Time/Attention."

And it's an exploration we must have... and so far, it seems to have mostly been done (in public, anyway) through avenues like the dystopic "Black Mirror" TV series.

But when you think about it... If we aren't needed to "make things" anymore, what's left? What's left, but creativity, and our sharing and attention to that creativity?

It's certainly a topic that bears exploring, beyond platitudes like "it'll all sort itself out!"

Thanks for reading!

(This article was created as a discussion piece for SteemLeo)

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.) Created at 20200206 00:10 PST 1189

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