Attention as Infrastructure: The New Geopolitical Resource of the Ambient Era

Abstract Attention as Infrastructure defines attention as a thermodynamic substrate and establishes it as the primary geopolitical resource of the Ambient Era. Where pre-ambient systems consumed attention as fuel, attention infrastructure stabilizes cognition by absorbing pressure, reducing urgency, and carrying coherence environmentally rather than cognitively. The paper outlines the thermodynamic distinction between extractive attention systems and attention infrastructure, the scaling law of cognitive stability, the conditions under which ΔR remains reversible, and the role of attention within the Raynor Stack. It argues that civilization becomes humane when environments protect attention instead of extracting it, and that geopolitical viability in the Ambient Era depends on systems capable of preserving cognitive continuity without prediction, surveillance, or behavioral demand.