Interlaced but decoupled attentions generate knowledge exceeding any member’s contribution

Evidence

Psychoanalytical hermeneutic and literary hermeneutic share the same presupposition of INTER-ATTENTIONAL ADDED VALUE: the interlacing of joint but free-floating attentions (which are concerned, therefore, with separating themselves from one another), produces new sensibilities and forms of understanding that are superior to the sum of the knowledge brought by each. The ecosystem that valorizes free-floating attention – whether asymmetrical as in psychoanalytic cure or literary communication, or symmetrical as in interpretative debate14 – functions in the same way as the conversations Vilém Flusser used to illustrate ‘network systems’: the interplay of attention leads to a ‘raising of the level of information’. … The detachment brought about by free-floating attention – whether it is rooted in a voluntary effort or in simple distraction through a lack of attentional resources – allows our joint (but unstuck) attention to discover forms, properties and potentialities that were not previously available to any of the individuals in the group. The emergence of an inter-attentional added value enables the raising of the general level of information as it introduces entirely new discoveries. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 341

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘inter-attentional added value’ — the chapter’s central newly-coined construct.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that added value requires attentions that are joint yet mutually unstuck (loosely coupled) is a genuinely subtle, non-obvious proposition about collective cognition — worth sitting with.
• XREF: Directly relevant to the Frankfurt-to-digital bridge: collective intelligence and distributed cognition theories (Hutchins, Surowiecki), and debates about whether online ‘crowd’ attention actually raises information levels. — connects to: Attention is more valuable when it diverges from others than when it aligns — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 526; Collective intelligence exceeds any individual’s without erasing individual expertise — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 552; Thought originates in vectoral attention before hardening into scalar form. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 235 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Attention is more valuable when it diverges from others than when it aligns #corroborates (0.72) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 526