Attention Span and Ageing

As we get older, our attention span shortens because we are making a pattern in 4-dimensions of increasing complexity and fine detail. Observe a tree. The trunk is thick. it branches into a few stout branches, then finer branches, and at the tips, when the tree is older, many fine filaments of branch. When drawing this tree, when we are the tree building ourselves, we must start slowly and steadily, but at the end dart quickly from fine branch to fine branch. Loss of attention is a symptom, perhaps, of this fine stage, but it is not itself a failing or frailty.

Fractals seem to start with thick, stout, cores, and end in finer details, and all things seem to grow in this way. It is apparent from the design of animals which have evolved over the millions of years that these fine details have become more common, that details have been added. That the level of detail controls refinement. Stars, galaxies and the larger structures of the universe seem to retain this too; that finer and finer details are added in successive generations.

So, perhaps these 'attention spans' shorten with the age of all things.

Mark Sheeky, 27 July 2023