In it’s well known novel “Dune”, Frank Herbert wrote:

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them”

Even though it was written in 1965, it couldn’t be more accurate.

We now constantly live with our computers and phones. At least several hours each day are spent in front of a screen.

Much more if you are an information worker of some kind.

This brings important changes to your mind.

Most of the time, you are in fact outsourcing your attention to the machine. Notifications, mindless browsing, endless scrolling, all are much more in control of your attention than you.

Needless to say, that these attention grabbing mechanisms are controlled by the “other men with machines”.

Your attention is being controlled by the engineers of facebook, netflix and all the other apps or tools that you use.

It’s very easy to be absorbed by them. You can easily get lost in their entertainment without much effort.

And that’s the danger.

You are in fact outsourcing your mind to the machines, as Frank Herbert puts it.

The algorithms end up controlling where your attention goes, what you think, and how you think.

There’s nothing wrong in a controlled and moderate use of technology. It can be quite a great aid to our minds. I certainly know the advantages of the unlimited knowledge available on the internet.

But it’s important to train your mind and inner power to prevent these tools from hijacking them.

The more you train, the more you are aware of your own thinking, mental states and attention, the less power machines have over you, and the more control you retain over your mind.

Use the machines and algorithms but don’t let yourself be used by them.

Start to train your attention with the course:
>>> Concentration and Mind Control