CONCEPT

Presence (Stone)

Stone's distinction between attention (a mechanism that can be directed across multiple objects) and presence (the quality of complete being-there that AI cannot multiply and may, by multiplying attention, eliminate altogether).

Presence is not the same as attention. A person can attend to something without being present to it: she can analyze a report without being present to the problem it describes, evaluate AI output without being present to the creative process, respond to a colleague's message without being present to the person who sent it. Attention is a mechanism — directable, measurable, manageable. Presence exceeds mechanism. It includes attention but adds emotional engagement, somatic awareness, and a quality of commitment that resists reservation. AI makes it possible to attend to more things than ever before. Stone's framework reveals that AI does not — cannot — make it possible to be present to more things, and may by multiplying attention reduce the space available for presence altogether.

In The You On AI Field Guide

The distinction matters because presence is the foundation of every relationship that matters. The parent who is present to her child during conversation is doing something categorically different from the parent

In The You On AI Field Guide

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