We have only one active center of attention at any given moment, a single cognitive focus, and we move it around as our environment demands or allows. Evolved over millions of years, this center of attention is the input jack for our nervous systems
fight-or-flight program. Locked in the present, it provides our experience of now, of reality, and even, some would say, of being.
Our cognitive focus provides safety: it is perpetually scanning the horizon for even the slightest change in the environment that might pose a threat. Most of the new economy revolves around the manipulation of attention - or more accurately, our center of cognitive attention.