This chapter introduces a fundamental aspect of attention that is beginning to be understood at a deeper level because of neuroscience research. In addition to how attention is allocated at one instant in time, new research is showing that there are temporal limits to attention and that a complete understanding of attention requires understanding the timing of attention. The “attentional blink” phenomenon is discussed, along with neuroscience evidence linking attention and consciousness. The brain mechanisms of attending to time are compared to those involved in attending to space and to static properties of objects. This chapter also explores the relation between attention and memory, highlighting the holding of attention. The factors that determine attentional dwell time, and the brain regions affecting this type of control are introduced. Classic and modern theories of the role of rhythms in the brain are discussed, and evidence from fMRI, ERPs, and single-unit recordings are presented that provide evidence for internally generated versus externally triggered rhythms in the alpha, beta, theta, and gamma frequency bands. The importance of neural entrainment and the synchrony of neural activity within and across brain regions is discussed, in relation to its role in attentional control and conscious processing.

This chapter introduces the book, laying out its central questions, including what it means to be postdigital, what diverse kinds of life and humanity can be found in screens, and what new technologies such as automation and AI might mean for screen lives. Chapter 1 also describes both the background and aspirations of the book, as well as its structure and a guide on how to approach reading it. Beyond discussing the defining research questions, this chapter also details the ideas underpinning the book, including the notion that there has been a tangible shift between how we related to screens a decade ago and how we do now. In addition, the book is guided by an awareness of the often conflicting and intricate relationships people have with screens, as well as the concept of the ‘smallness of screen lives’, inspired by Deborah Hicks’ notion. The Comfort of Screens is a tapestry which unfolds a story of postdigital life, sewn from the fabric of 17 people’s screen lives, interviews with whom form the backbone of the book. These ‘crescent voices’ are also introduced in this chapter.

Opening with an analysis of Instagram, Chapter 2 is concerned with how to think about postdigitality. Touching on multimodality, time-space-place, and responsive loops, this chapter highlights the contrast between digital life and postdigital life, unravelling the many dimensions of postdigitality. It concludes that postdigitality represents a world of symbiosis, whether that be of body and mind, physical life and screen life, representation and non-representation, immersion and connectivity, or interaction and convergence. These combinations are what lends digital media its unique power to move across time, space, and place. To explore these ideas, Chapter 2 analyses data which has been processed through ATLAS.ti to produce a list of postdigital keywords used by crescent voices.

This chapter, which opens by employing Forest as an example of an app which aims to help people avoid procrastinating on screens, is concerned with screen time. In particular, it discusses postdigital temporal rhythms, or the ways in which people experience time on, at, with, and against screens. Drawing on Henri Bergson’s theory of time, Chapter 6 situates durational time within a new, postdigital context, where free-flowing subjective time on screens is mediated by what Bergson terms qualitative multiplicity. These ideas are discussed against a backdrop of reflections from crescent voices, including data processed by ATLAS.ti, which tabulates what interviewees had to say about time and memory on screens. The chapter observes a trend in interviewee responses that experiences of time on screens were very often described as being strongly intuitive. Crescent voices frequently lost track of time in habitual movements on screens, a slip which interviewees found could give comfort by offering a break from clock time. Expanding on this, the chapter elaborates how screens disrupt notions of time as a predictable, measurable entity.

This chapter introduces the key metaphysical concepts that are integral to understanding the nature of time. It also critically assesses the leading arguments in this intellectual landscape, arguing that there are compelling metaphysical reasons to endorse a B-theory or C-theory and reject all A-theories (particularly presentism, the growing block, and the moving spotlight).

Chapter 3 considers a set of arguments, presented by Richard Swinburne and William Lane Craig, claiming that General Relativity can save the A-theory by substantiating objective passage via cosmic time. This argument is assessed and found wanting.

This chapter offers an in-depth reflection on the significance of time and temporality to the practice of toleration. Time-shaped Christian imagining of the other as “becoming” and growing into its own image. Constitutions, too, exist within certain temporal rhythms: they bind people within a specific space and in a specific time to a set of fundamental rules and arrangements. The binding of time by constitutions is an assertion of power in the saeculum, but also an expression of a need to better live with diversity. It is vital to the “emancipation” of modern constitutionalism from toleration that the constitution does not require a dominant or exclusive set of temporalities to establish order. Rather, constitutions need to allow for citizens to keep time differently, for example through the protection of rights and freedoms.

In this chapter, Qureshi-Hurst turns towards empirical science, introducing Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and arguing that its most compelling interpretation is committed to the existence of the block universe. The neo-Lorentzian interpretation is analysed and rejected.

The aims and scope of ’Salvation in the Block Universe’ are set out.

The main arguments are summarised, and Qureshi-Hurst looks ahead to promising areas of future scholarship.