Possibility Spaces

A term I came up with to help understand the effects of technology on our minds and productivity.

A possibility space is all the possible future actions or activities we percieve in any given moment, ranked by effort and desirability. For example, if you are standing in a kitchen, your possibility space may include open fridge, look in cupboard, and pick up knife but it likely would not include pick up TV remote unless the TV remote happens to be sitting on the kitchen counter.

The problem with computers and the internet is that they create essentially infinite low-effort possibility spaces. You could read about lost civilizations on wikipedia, catch up with friends on Facebook, or watch cat videos on Youtube. The possibilities are endless, and they're all within a click of a button.