Inversion of Information and Attention

What’s happened is, really rapidly, we’ve undergone this tectonic shift, this inversion between information and attention. Most of the systems that we have in society—whether it’s news, advertising, even our legal systems—still assume an environment of information scarcity. The First Amendment protects freedom of speech, but it doesn’t necessarily protect freedom of attention. There wasn’t really anything obstructing people’s attention at the time it was written. Back in an in...

 Protecting the Environment as Protecting the Future

If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it. You grown ups say you love us. Please, take action. And for me,it is absolutely my responsibility to do whatever it takes to protect my child. When the haze gets serious, there is at least one thing we can do. That is to protect yourself and your loved ones. When I drew this little bear on paper, I was reminded of, when my daughter got sick, all my fear of losing her and all my hope of protecting her. I wish that all other mothers in...

 Evolution of the Eye

A possible sequence of such changes begins with simple eyespots made of light-sensitive pigment, as seen in flatworms. The skin then folds in, forming a cup that protects the eyespot and allows it to better localize the light source. Limpets have eyes like this. In the chambered nautilus, we see a further narrowing of the cup’s opening to produce an improved image, and in ragworms the cup is capped by a protective transparent cover to protect the opening. In abalones, part of the fluid in t...