Attention as a Conserved Quantity

Hi All, long time lurker here. I was scrolling through kindle a couple weeks ago and found a book for free and had a read, I won't name the book but it had an interesting concept and was keen to see the thoughts of others on the subject.

The book proposed that energy was "available capacity" in attention, that in order to "see" (the book doesn't call it that) we need to have a surplus of that capacity but most of the time we are running at 100%. The book proposes that the internal dialog (the book calls it "The Narrator") is only 1 such thing using up our capacity but there are actually many and it names a few, to quote the book:

• The Narrator
• The Affect (appears to be about underlying emotion like excitement or anxiety)
• The Social Self (is our automatic social prediction)
• The Environment is Low-Demand (I assume means to be in a quite place)
• The Attention is Non-Fixated (This seems to be not trying to fix gaze or thought)

It also states that to try and remain silent though the day is a drain as well "Finally, some attempt to Enforce Silence.

Commentary is suppressed. Explanation is avoided. This is mistaken for conservation. In practice, Suppression is expensive. It requires continuous monitoring and a standing guard. The system remains occupied by the "Gag". Silence that functions here is Incidental, it cannot be willed into being."

The book is short but has some interesting ideas around stopping the internal dialog and essentially gives some methods to do so but then says once you have done it, don't do it this way again, you don't need to, it sort of implies that you just sort of figure it out once you've seen it.

Would be keen to hear the thoughts from some people here?