The 'attention economy' corrupts science
The attention economy corrupts everything it touches: not just science, but journalism, politics, and even childhood.<p>Being famous used to be rather difficult. Of course there were exceptions (writing <i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i>, being the guy who dove into the river to save a drowning child, for example), but for the most part, you were going to live your life known only to the few hundred or thousand people you met personally.<p>Even though you <i>could</i> pick up a phone and dial anyone in the world who owned a phone, you wouldn&#x27;t, and if you did, they&#x27;d hang up on you. Now you can force your idiotic, or great ideas onto the screens of millions of people you&#x27;ll never meet.<p>Is that a good or a bad thing? It&#x27;s certainly bad in some ways, and this is one of them.