How a Handful of Tech Companies Control Billions of Minds Every Day

Imagine you walking into a room, a control room with a bunch of people, a
hundred people, hunched over a desk with little dials, and that that control room will
shape the thoughts and feelings of a billion people. This might sound like science
fiction, but this actually exists right now, today.

Google has design ethics experts who learn how to ethically guide people's
thoughts. It was they who created what you see in their tape, which plans the schedule
in our minds. The notification that appears on the screen takes away our attention and
time, because we go to read this notification, which we were not going to do initially.

There is a specific goal, hidden from outsiders and pursued by all the technology
ever created, its essence is to capture our attention. The best way to capture the
attention of an audience is to know how the human mind works. There are so many
persuasion techniques. The simplest examples are YouTube, Facebook and Netflix,
which are configured to auto-play videos and episodes. Arousing indignation is also a
good way to attract attention, because we do not control the indignation. The people
responsible for the news feed are not responsible to us. They report only for attracting
the attention of the audience. Because of the business model of advertising, they
report to everyone who has enough money to go to this control room and say: “This
is a group of people ... I want them to think that way, and not otherwise.”

We are deprived of our free will to pay attention to what we want and to live as we
want, the way we communicate, our democracy is changing, our very ability to
communicate and build relationships with who we want is changing. This applies to
everyone, because millions of people have a phone in their pocket.

So how can this be fixed? Three radical changes are needed in technology and in
society itself. First: we must admit that we are easily persuaded. Second: we need
new models and reporting systems. And finally, we need to revive design, because if
you once understand the nature of man, you can manage the time of millions of
people.
 Imagine a complete revival of design that will try to create for us the best way to
live the way we want. To do this, the following is necessary: the first is protection
against the waste of our time without our knowledge, from unwanted thoughts. And
the second is the opportunity to live according to the schedule we created. For
example, your friend refused to have lunch with you today, and you are a little lonely.
What will you do in this situation? Open Facebook. And at this very moment, the
goal of the developers is to create something that will draw your attention to the
monitor as much as possible. Now imagine that they created another feed, the easiest
way, using all the data they have, to help you communicate with people close to you.
And imagine that there would be another button with the question: “How would you
like to spend time?” And you press the button: "make dinner." And a little lower the
following question: “Who invites?” And you can argue over the conversation, but do
it at the most suitable and convenient time, in the evening at home, surrounded by
friends, for a pleasant conversation. Imagine, we are constantly participating in this
race, which forces us to spend more and more time on the Internet, and does not
allow events to develop as we would like.

Often the most important problems are those that we face daily, those that control
the minds of a billion people. Perhaps, instead of admiring the new augmented reality
and virtual reality, all these things that it creates and which also cannot escape this
race for attention, we would focus the attention of millions on what we already have.

Solving this problem is a critical foundation for solving any other problems. There
is nothing in our life or our collective problems where we are not required to pay
attention to what is important. And at the end of life, all that remains of us is our
attention and our time. And how best to spend it?