Whether Attention is Due to Every Notification

The doctors disputed in this form. First the question is posed; then the objections are gathered that argue against the master’s holding, for the stronger case is heard first; then the contrary is briefly alleged; then the master answers; lastly each objection is met in its turn, under the same numeral by which it was raised. An objection that ends therefore etc. ends by showing the thesis already stated. The present question was argued at the chapter of the engineers concerning the push notification: whether attention is due to every one that arrives.a

It seems that attention is due to every notification.

Obiectio i — of courtesy

For a notification arrives bearing the name of a sender; and whatever bears a person’s name makes that person present. But courtesy requires that a person made present be acknowledged. Therefore every notification is owed at least acknowledgment.

Obiectio ii — of hidden urgency

Again, the observatory counted · signals in · days, of which · were urgent. But an unexamined signal cannot be told apart from an urgent one; and prudence does not gamble with urgencies. Therefore every signal must be examined, and examination is attention. Therefore etc.b

Obiectio iii — of the standing number

Again, the device displays a number of things not yet read, and the number does not rest at zero. But a number that does not rest is an account not settled; and an account not settled is a debt. No debt is to be left standing. Therefore etc.

Obiectio iv — of the cheapness of the glance

Again, to look costs seconds and pleases the sender. But what costs little and profits another is owed, as the Philosopher holds of small courtesies. Therefore attention is due to every notification.

On the contrary, attention is a vessel of fixed measure. What is poured out on everything is poured out on nothing; and what is owed to all is owed to none. The wise read their letters at an appointed hour, and the rest of the day belongs to the work itself.c

Distinctio 1 — of the two acts

Attention is not one act but two: the glance, by which a thing is inspected (actus inspectiendi); and the response, by which the person is answered (actus respondendi). The objections conflate them. Courtesy concerns the response; custody concerns the glance; and the two have different debts.

Distinctio 2 — of the three genera

Every signal belongs to one of three genera: of the expectant person, awaiting reply (persona expectans); of the instrument, reporting its own state (instrumentum se ipsum nuntians); of the merchant, soliciting custom (mercator clamans). In the observatory’s register the count stood: expectant ·, instruments ·, merchants ·; in all · in thirty days, that is · a day.d

Of these genera the first alone carries the debt of the response, for courtesy binds persons, and only the expectant person is waiting. The second carries the debt of custody, which is triage, not reply: an instrument’s report is read for its exceptions, at hours appointed, as the stations of a watch are kept. The third carries no debt at all; the merchant’s cry is weather, and weather is silenced, not answered.

Therefore let the readings be fixed as the hours were fixed: tertia at nine, sexta at thirteen, nona at seventeen; and between hours let the instruments keep their own counsel. The longest an urgent instrument can then wait is the longest interval between hours, ·; and this bound the register confirms tolerable, for of the · urgent signals held back to the appointed hours, none waited more than ·, and the mean of the three was ·.e

Ad i — of courtesy

Courtesy binds to the person, not to the channel wearing the person’s name. Where the sender is expectant, acknowledge, and promptly; where the sender is an instrument or a merchant, the name is livery, not a face, and courtesy does not begin. The objection proves too much: it would make the doorbell owed conversation.

Ad ii — of hidden urgency

Prudence does not gamble; it bounds. The · part is not found by examining everything always, but by fixing the intervals at which examination occurs: three readings a day bound the worst case at ·, and the register’s three urgencies waited on average ·. The objection is true of a day with no appointed hours, and false of a day with them.f

Ad iii — of the standing number

The number measures the vessel’s queue, not the soul’s account. A nonzero count is the instrument’s state, spoken in figures; it is a gauge, not a creditor. Read at the hours, it falls to zero three times a day, which no debt does.

Ad iv — of the cheapness of the glance

The glance is not cheap. Attention does not sum by seconds but by residue: every switch leaves sediment, which the annals of the office put near · minutes before the former thought returns entire. What costs the morning is not owed as a small courtesy, whatever it flatters the sender to believe.g So it is answered.

Therefore: to the expectant person, attention and answer; to the instrument, custody at the appointed hours; to the merchant, silence.h