It's not often you open a mathematical research paper and find a Pablo Neruda poem. But a new study in the journal Nature Human Behavior begins just like that: "Es tan corto el amor, y tan largo el olvido." Translation? "Love is so short, forgetting is so long."
The paper, titled "The universal decay of collective memory and attention," is an ambitious attempt to turn the slow slippage of cultural memory—the way a hit song lingers, or doesn't—into a quantitative method for measuring the way our attention to various cultural products declines. It seeks, in other words, to turn the most abstract cognitive phenomenon into a cold, hard equation.
[...] The process of decline was similar among all of the artifacts the researchers studied, but the amount of time it took for each to fade varied by domain. Biographies lasted the longest, circulating in the collective memory for 20 to 30 years. Music disappeared the fastest, lasting just 5.6 years on average.
[...] The work could fuel research into our species' tendency to forget large spans of history, with landmark events tucked away into our cultural memory, sans context of the surrounding years and minus the perspective of characters we don't care for. Perhaps understanding how quickly these historical moments fade—morphing from the truth we lived to the condensed narrative we save for posterity—could keep us from constantly repeating ourselves.
How long can an event hold humanity's attention?
Sorry for the long link to the paper. The shorter link gives access to the abstract.
[Paper - Abstract] The universal decay of collective memory and attention
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday December 15 2018, @08:42PM (2 children)
Whoever controls which events are remembered and which ones aren't gets to control how the majority of people are thinking.
That's why watching propaganda (a.k.a. TV news broadcasts) is a bad idea.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 15 2018, @10:57PM (1 child)
And You think Internet is better?
Most of these "so independent" Internet users are force-fed with an information equivalent of fast-food. Social media is literally infested with it, search engines with their neophilia instead of giving requested results too, it's more and more difficult not to find it.
And someone holds a lever to the valve of this pseudo-information stream. More this, more that and you control it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Sunday December 16 2018, @04:46AM
Absolutely. Push content is always easier to control. For example, this study [ssrn.com] of the effects of austerity, found that countries with higher social media penetration had stronger protests to austerity measures than countries where TV and other traditional push technologies dominated.
Still better than TV.
More accurately, a lot of people hold a lot of levers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 15 2018, @09:29PM
Find something else to think about, like The Saudi Regime’s Other Victims
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/opinion/saudi-arabia-khashoggi.html [nytimes.com]
(Score: 2) by Uncle_Al on Saturday December 15 2018, @09:43PM
The truth is an illusive thing
'take my truth please'
I make joke
-- Tom T Bone Stankus
"The Existential Blues"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday December 15 2018, @11:46PM (5 children)
Good luck finding something to do with your lady on Saturday night when no one has had singing, dancing or acting lessons in high school.
Do you like to read books? Fiction you say?
Good luck with that.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @01:24AM
You know people sang and danced before there were such things as lessons and high schools, right?
And several of my favorite authors were originally trained in STEM fields; of course Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, but more contemporary examples include Larry Niven (mathematics), Poul Anderson (physics), and arguably Jerry Pournelle (psychology and polsci), depending where you draw the line for soft sciences in your STEM definition.
(Score: 3, Touché) by fyngyrz on Sunday December 16 2018, @01:33AM
Wait, what?
That's it? That's just... pitiful.
And singing? Acting? These are the enabling top of your list of what you want to do with a partner on Saturday night?
I can see the dancing being at least useful for the dance-oriented (though I certainly think it's absurd to assert that "lessons in high school" are required to engage in such pursuits) but the other two don't seem to me to be things where the lack of same would cripple most people's Saturday evening.
I mean, let's think about a nice Saturday night. There's the big one, a romantic interval leading, hopefully, to wild monkey sex and consensual showering. Some enjoy getting high together, either at home or out and about. There's sharable entertainment of all kinds: the play house, the movie house (or home theater — here, we've quit going out for that one as I built us a nice theater here), the ballet, comedy clubs, sports events, dinner out, charity events, visiting friends, visiting family, taking a nice walk...
Then there are more homey things one might enjoy, such as crafting, working on the home, studying together, discussing current events, spending some quality time with the pets and/or the kids, having friends over (the opposite of going to visit them and possessed of a completely different vibe in my opinion, taking a drive (car, bike, all terrain vehicle, boat, whatever), reading books together, or reading a book to each other, playing games (video, board, cards, strip-whatever floats your boats), etc.
Hell, you could go to dance lessons together.
I mean, come on. If you and yours are actually inclined to have a good time, it's just not the case that a lack of any of "singing, dancing, acting" in high school should slow you down even a little bit. If it does, it wasn't the fault of a limited high school education, I assure you.
--
Say it with flowers - Send a Triffid.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday December 16 2018, @03:57AM (1 child)
If you're in Portland, there's this lovely tram system that travels all over the area -- a scenic tour.
Seriously, I was in Portland for a short while a few years ago, and that tram system was delightful!
Too bad I wasn't there long enough with free time to try and meet you.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday December 16 2018, @06:23PM
Why just yesterday I advised a newcomer to purchase a day pass then spend it on the bus and the tram.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @09:59AM
ANAL SEX
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:30AM
So, bit rot was a new thing when computers were invented? Computers are more like humans than we suspected? Awesome!!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:42AM
I didn't quite make it through the entire summary.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday December 16 2018, @01:12AM
Perhaps it'd better labeled moronity's attention.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @06:54AM
As far as the eye can see. Oh look, a castle! *swim swim swim* Oh look, a castle! *swim swim swim* Oh look, a castle!
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:23PM
Skynet fed to the equation yields an attention span of plus infinity or zero?
(A: yes)
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Sunday December 16 2018, @05:15PM
isn't that what books are for?
I mean, I have mathematics texts spanning a couple of millenia (Greek, Roman, Arabic, European etc..)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday December 16 2018, @09:58PM
N/T
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford