IT Confidential: Evolution, Web Surfing, And WiretapsIT Confidential: Evolution, Web Surfing, And Wiretaps

One of the most significant questions about evolution--it's a theory about the origin of species, if you never learned about it in school--is whether it continues, and in what form. It makes sense that if humans evolved in the past, they would continue to evolve in the present and the future. But if so, how? What traits? What characteristics? I have a thesis--or an observation.

Humans are evolving shorter and shorter attention spans and faster and faster response times. I will offer into evidence this study, "Attention Web Designers: You Have 50 Milliseconds To Make A Good First Impression!," by researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa, which was recently published in the academic journal Behavior And Information Technology (Taylor & Francis, Vol. 25, No. 2/March-April 2006). Researchers found that people give Web sites favorable or unfavorable ratings based on impressions formed in just 1/20th of a second--less time than it takes to blink--according to an interview with one of the authors of the study by the Reuters news service. "It really is just a physiological response," Gitte Lindgaard told Reuters.

Now, evolution works this way: If horns are an advantage to survival, the people born with horns will prosper and procreate. You don't slowly develop horns successively over generations; instead, someone is born with horns and that person survives and has children with horns, and they survive and have children with horns, etc. That means short attention span/fast response is a characteristic being selected as a key to survival. It seems likely: There's more information generated at faster and faster rates than ever before, information that has to be assimilated and acted on quickly, somehow, by someone. And that represents a competitive advantage. I mean, think about the job requirements for a wiretap specialist at the National Security Agency.

That's not necessarily good news for me. My attention span isn't short, but it's not all that long, either, so I can't flit from subject to subject and I can't concentrate for long periods. On the other hand, my response time is definitely slow. My son regularly beats me at video games, and my daughter flicks through cable channels faster than I can figure out what's on the screen. That makes me the physiological equivalent of a Democratic politician in a roomful of lobbyists--perceptive enough to realize the opportunity but too slow to pull it off.

So it's the evolutionary end of the line for me, I guess, which is OK. I never thought of myself as a model of human efficiency. It also means that my game-playing, channel-surfing kids represent the future of the species, which should make me happy. But another significant question about evolution has to do with trajectory. Evolution is generally characterized as an upward movement--but what if it's not? I love my kids, but when I look at them, do I see an evolutionary leap forward? If I squint my eyes ...

On the other hand, there may be some intelligent design behind all of this. But whose? My best guess: Steve Jobs.

I've heard rumors that Apple is working on an iPod digital music player directly implanted in the human ear--no lie. How about you--got any good Apple rumors or industry tips? Send them to [email protected], or phone 516-562-5326.

The News Show was tailor-made for those with short attention spans and fast responses. Watch it at noon ET every weekday, at www.TheNewsShow.tv or on information.com.

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