The Attention Economy: Power, Profit and Privacy in the Digital Era

What is the most valuable commodity in the world today? It’s not oil, computing power for A.I. or Bitcoin. These are inert objects, meaningless without human attention to give them value. Attention, the most potent and sought-after resource, drives everything from demand for rare minerals to international trade policies. When you capture attention with something as simple as a well-placed iPhone ad, you convert a few flipped bits in a database into a cascade of physical labor, resource extraction and influence on geopolitical affairs.