Every year, John Brockman, a New York publisher, editor, author and agent, queries thought leaders and scientists with his annual question. This year's question: How has the internet changed the way you think?

Answers this year range from explorations into gray matter, to personal musings. My answer explores the tension...

Someone always stops me in the hall at a conference or asks anxiously after a talk: How much time should I spend in front of a screen? At what point should I pull back and take a break? Should I stop every 30 or 45 minutes?

My response is always...

Information overload. I don't think so. Blaming the information doesn't help us one bit.

Information over-consumption. That gets us to the heart of it. It's a twisty and dark tale of chronic stress, the autonomic nervous system and breathing.

Chronic stress causes us to fall back on familiar routines. The...

This year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the TED Conference. Founded by Richard Wurman, TED, stands for Techonology, Entertainment, Design. In 2002, Chris Anderson, a successful entrepreneur, used his Sapling Foundation to purchase TED. While there are still threads of Technology, Entertainment and Design, many attendees this year suggested...

We're obsessed. Not just with our own Blackberries -- we're also obsessed with Blackberry One, the President's Blackberry. We seem to care more about whether or not President Obama keeps his Blackberry than whether or not he quits smoking.

The Blackberry is a communication prosthetic and our new President, throughout...

What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?

The Internet, television, antibiotics, automobiles, electricity, nuclear power, space travel, and cloning -- these inventions were born out of dreams, persistence, and imagination. What game-changing ideas can we expect to see in our lifetime?

As each...

Distraction is getting a bad name.

This past month, I've been heads down on a few projects and noticing something I'd not been very conscious of before now. When I get "stuck" or when I reach a natural break point on a piece of work, the menu of potential distracters...

My friend Sara sent me an email: "Linda, Sorry that I'm not able to call you back. My phone fell into the toilet."

We live in a world where phones can fall into toilets because our phones are following us everywhere. Untethered. Free. Free to fall into the toilet.

Last...

One afternoon, earlier this year, as I was scanning a long list that I was adding to endlessly, I realized, "I'll never get it all done. That's probably just fine. But this endless list and this feeling of being completely scheduled...it's not working right now."

I met some friends...

I've just opened my email and there's nothing out of the ordinary there. It's the usual daily flood of schedule, project, travel, information, and junk mail. Then I notice...I'm holding my breath.

As the email spills onto my screen, as my mind races with thoughts of what I'll answer...

People often say we're multi-tasking ourselves to death. Is that really what we're doing? I think not.

I call what we're doing today continuous partial attention, or cpa, for short.

Continuous partial attention and multi-tasking are two different attention strategies, motivated by...