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1-Page Summary of Payback
Chaos im Kurzzeitgedächtnis
Can you remember what you were doing on your computer 20 minutes ago? Texting, emailing and tweeting are all supposed to make life easier. However, they often cause chaos for users because they compete for their attention and interrupt other activities. After an interruption it takes a lot of energy to get back to the original task. It’s no wonder that the consulting industry is booming right now as people try to figure out how to bring order into their chaotic lives.
Krisensymptome
Are you still able to finish a book? Do your attention spans get shorter every day? This could be because of the way that computers have become part of our lives. It’s not just you, though—many people are experiencing these symptoms. Other possible symptoms include: it is hard for you to follow conversations; you tend to ignore your children or spouse; and/or, you lose control over time management and planning for your life. Can the doctor help with all these problems? No, because he barely talks to his patients anymore and he stares at his computer screen like it was some sort of magnet. He uses templates while writing down individual patient histories instead of focusing on details that would be important in making proper diagnoses. Doctors also misinterpret medical statistics from their computer screens which leads them to make incorrect conclusions about their patients’ health issues.
The financial crash is a sad example of how mathematicians and financial experts have given control over their finances to computers. These did not register any signs of an impending crisis, and therefore did not sound the alarm. This was because they were programmed by people with intellectual weaknesses and blind spots in their consciousness.
Mythos Multitasking
Multitasking makes you seem more productive and effective. However, it actually isn’t efficient, because this type of working is not in line with human nature. To put it bluntly, when you multitask, you’re constantly distracted by several things at once. The Stanford researcher Clifford Nass presented the following study results in 2009:
People who multitask have lost control of their short-term memory and become distracted. They lose the ability to distinguish between important and unimportant information, which hinders their ability to make conclusions.
People who are good at multitasking are more prone to jumping to conclusions. As they become better at it, they don’t get faster or more efficient; instead, their performance suffers. Multitaskers also make a lot of mistakes that creep into their thinking processes.
Die Unterwerfung unter den Computer
Science fiction often has the theme of intelligent machines taking over. In fact, it’s already happening in our society: people are increasingly behaving like machines and viewing their environment through a computer screen.
Many people are now using the Internet to track their accomplishments and life experiences. They’re also tracking other people’s accomplishments and storing them in online databases.
Technology is getting more and more connected. For example, you can connect to the Internet from your phone or even in your home by using a thermostat that measures temperature. Some companies are already collecting data on people’s health and behavior patterns to create profiles of them which they use for future predictions about how healthy someone will be or whether he or she will be successful at work. These predictions are made by comparing data with other people’s information who have similar characteristics so that personal individuality gets lost.
