The Manufacture of Forgetfulness

Forgetfulness, in Thich Nhat Hanh’s vocabulary, is not mere distraction but the opposite of mindfulness: the condition of being carried along by habit and craving without ever waking up inside one’s own life, of eating without tasting, walking without arriving, living without being alive. The manufacture of forgetfulness is the name for the systematic industrial production of this condition by the attention economy—not as a regrettable side effect of delivering other value, but as its deliberate primary product. Earlier media demanded that the forgetful mind do some work of escaping: turn the page, change the channel, decide what to watch. The AI-curated feed removes even that minimal friction. It serves the next item before the request has formed, predicts what will hold the user before the user knows they want it, and refines its model of individual vulnerability with every second of engagement. The gap between stimulus and response—the small space that Thich