Large Neuron Collider

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Are there too many people in the office that pop up at your desk to ask you something stupid, that send mails distracting you from your work or invite you to completely wasteful weekly meetings? Just charge them for your attention. An attention market will flourish within the company that successfully allocates scarce attention and prioritizes tasks. An idea I have had a long time ago. But luckily I have just stumbled upon US Patent 7240826 (issued on July 10, 2007), so I don’t have to invent something. It has already been done:

A centrally tracked artificial currency is provided within the context of an enterprise. This currency serves as a unit of account, medium of exchange, and store of value in a corporate “attention economy.” Users (typically coworkers) in the enterprise are allotted a base number of currency units, which they can earn, exchange, and spend in a variety of ways to signal importance and “purchase” attention of others, or priority for other organization resources. In one aspect, senders of messages can specify an amount of currency to be associated with the message, so that recipients can see the specified amount before deciding whether to read the message. Once such a system is in use, it facilitates exchange of value based on user-created transactions regarding behavior, communication, resources, incentives, and priorities.

The patent is hold by a company named Serios The system is called “Attent™” and the above mentioned attention currency “Serios™”. The claim is that it attaches value to emails. Very interesting. Gotta get back to it later.