[bumby]

>The entire premise of a system is that it removes the need for careful attention.

I think this premise is flawed or, at best, too narrow. A system is just a logical grouping of items that perform a function. Sometimes that function can be to reduce cognitive burden, but it doesn't have to be. A "vision system" like what humans use does not reduce attention, but increases/enables it, while a autonomic nervous system can reduce attention. The ability to increase/reduce attention is not the central principle of a system.

[tekne]

What I'd say you're pointing out is that the word "system" is overloaded.

A vision system does allow you to pay less attention: you don't need to carefully remember how far away the door is, you just need to look! I tried this often as a kid: if you want to navigate a hallway with your eyes closed, you need to pay far more attention to your other senses than you need to pay with your eyes -- where attention here is not the volume of data, but rather the complexity of conscious bookkeeping -- I can (ironically) "play it by ear" with my eyes open, but eyes closed I must plan every step!

It just so happens to be that the ability to pay less attention makes more things possible and hence the demand for attention overall may increase -- if not intrinsically, due to your competitors (who can also see!)

[bumby]

I would argue this take conflates attention with cognitive overhead required because of a lack of training. Navigating with our closed feels like it takes more attention because we’ve practiced so many hours navigating by sight that it no longer feels cognitively burdensome. A bat would have no trouble navigating without sight for the same reason. I don’t think most people would say giving up our sight for echolocation would reduce our attention, it just transforms it.