[extropy-chat] no electronics at Singularity Summit???

[Samantha Atkins]

On May 10, 2006, at 12:52 PM, Hal Finney wrote:

> I hadn't heard about this restriction - where did you hear it?

The receipt/directions/request to release unused seat reservations I  
received this morning.

>
> Anyway, I actually see it as a good thing.  I gave a talk last year
> at a semi "hackers" conference and it was pretty shocking to see the
> inattention of audience members to all the speakers.  The whole time
> someone was talking, most of the audience had their heads down in  
> their
> laptops, IM'ing away or otherwise passing the time.
>

I am often typing in notes, surfing related material and keeping part  
of my attention on any IM about the presentation and subject at  
hand.  This makes the experience and the amount of learning richer.   
This is the primary reason I objected.

Many people here are very familiar with much of the work and position  
of many of the speakers.  The speakers will be addressing what they  
believe is the average background knowledge level of the audience  
generally.   That means that a lot of the presentation is old hat to  
many people present.  Why should they sit attentively and do nothing  
but feign rapt attention?  I do not owe anyone the "respect" of such  
pretense.

Many of us multi-task quite well and are adept at catching the new  
and paying attention to the new in a presentation while doing other  
things at other points.

Most presentations (with occasional wonderful exceptions) are too low  
in informational bandwidth to reasonably fully occupy the mind.

>
> But here, we've got people like Hofstadter, like Drexler,  
> Kurzweill, etc,
> I'd hate to see them being rudely ignored like so many of the speakers
> were at my conference last year.  These guys have travelled a long  
> way,
> some of them, and it's a real privilege that we'll get to hear what  
> they
> say.  Paying undivided attention is not too much to ask of an  
> audience.


Just because I am typing or looking at my screen doesn't mean I am  
rude at all.   I am intimately familiar with the works of most of  
these folks.  Much of the audience may not be as familiar with it.    
It is too much to ask for undivided attention for anything that does  
not remotely require undivided attention.

>
> If and when we get to the point where our IMing and net browsing is
> this unobtrusive, then fine, I don't see a problem with people doing
> that during talks (although they're largely wasting their own time).
> But at present there is no way for it to happen without the speaker
> noticing that he's being ignored.
>

We do the best we can with current technology to listen and think and  
explore as actively as we can and to maximally use our time.    
Undivided attention as in not using available tools or simply sitting  
passively while hearing and seeing what one already knows is no sign  
of respect.   It is a sign of the mere form being held more important  
than substance.  I suggest you rethink your position.

- samantha