• rainrain@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      3 hours ago

      That makes sense.

      I think that the biggest thing about paying attention and ignoring is the invisibleness of habitual ignoring. You could have an entire skyscraper of habitual ignoring, rendering an entire universe invisible, and never know it.

  • Freshparsnip@lemm.ee
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    23 hours ago

    There’s a famous video (I think there are actually multiple ones with a similar concept) where you’re asked to count the number of basketball passes and while you’re counting, you don’t notice a moonwalking bear

    • rainrain@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      23 hours ago

      I believe it.

      Replace “number of basketball passes” with the dozen really important things that we all must pay attention to as adult members of our modern society.

      Replace “moonwalking bear” with the various species of ghost, elf, pixie, fairy, spirit and little people reported in ancient literature.

      In stage magic they call it “misdirection”. I suspect that it comprises the backbone of our reality.

  • rainrain@sh.itjust.worksOP
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    23 hours ago

    When you ignore a thing it disappears. Like, you stop seeing it. It disappears from your reality.

    Paying attention / ignoring can become a habit.

    And habits are basically invisible. So if you had a bunch of attention-controlling habits, slicing and dicing your reality like this, you’d never know it.

    In all probability this is the case.

    So there could be a thousand elves and ghosts dancing around and you’d never know it.

  • lath@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Yes. Which is why there’s enough cases of parents forgetting kids in the car to make it a visible issue.