Tom Chatfield
Tom Chatfield
Tom Chatfieldis a British author, technology theorist, and commentator...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionAuthor
across begin machines motion nature reaches tendency time towards unlike vast whatever
Unlike us, machines do not have a 'nature' consistent across vast reaches of time. They are, at least to begin with, whatever we set in motion - with an inbuilt tendency towards the exponential.
among earliest elite emerged history human known lasting priests privilege province recorded remained reserved southern themselves
The earliest known writing probably emerged in southern Mesopotamia around 5,000 years ago, but for most of recorded history, reading and writing remained among the most elite human activities: the province of monarchs, priests and nobles who reserved for themselves the privilege of lasting words.
proxy attentiveness understood
Time, presence and physical attentiveness are our most basic proxies for something ultimately unprovable: that we are understood.
games ideas broken
I spoke at TED Global 2010 about the ways that video games engage the brain, and in particular, the idea of reward structures: how a challenge or task can be broken down and presented to make it as engaging as possible.
miracle age texture
We live in an age of miracles so commonplace that it can be difficult to see them as anything other than part of the daily texture of living
self age examination
In an age of constant live connections, the central question of self-examination is drifting from ‘Who are you?’ towards ‘What are you doing?
journey self health-education
From exam grading to health education to professional training to democratic participation, paths towards self-realization and success in the world are often daunting and obscure: journeys only the privileged feel confident setting off along.
advanced consuming scarcely spent understanding waking
For all the sophistication of a world in which most of our waking hours are spent consuming or interacting with media, we have scarcely advanced in our understanding of what attention means.
biggest cash excites given money people stuff watching
The biggest neurological turn-on for people is other people. This is what really excites us. In reward terms, it's not money; it's not being given cash - that's nice - it's doing stuff with our peers, watching us, collaborating with us.
appear digital longer occupy simply
Once the words of a book appear onscreen, they are no longer simply themselves; they have become a part of something else. They now occupy the same space, not only as every other digital text, but as every other medium, too.
played stuff
The really interesting stuff about virtuality is what you can measure with it. Because what you can measure in virtuality is everything. Every single thing that every single person who's ever played in a game has ever done can be measured.
consensus deeply human machines potential prepare question remain seem unsettling
For the moment, machines able to 'think' in anything approaching a human sense remain science-fiction. How we should prepare for their potential emergence, however, is a deeply unsettling question - not least because intelligent machines seem considerably more achievable than any consensus around their programming or consequences.
amateur cracks hoarding slip thousand youtube
We are all amateur attention economists, hoarding and bartering our moments - or watching them slip away down the cracks of a thousand YouTube clips.
agent capacities electronic instant possess screens turning
As a medium, electronic screens possess infinite capacities and instant interconnections, turning words into a new kind of active agent in the world.