Al Gore on the "Rule of Reason"

Al Gore gave a speech to "The Media Center" back on Oct 5th... it's pretty interesting. While I agree with the "big idea" behind his speech - that big media is ruining our country - there are some interesting tangets... like this one, where he tries to explain why we are genetically predisposed to TV watching:

Make no mistake, full-motion video is what makes television such a powerful medium. Our brains - like the brains of all vertebrates - are hard-wired to immediately notice sudden movement in our field of vision. We not only notice, we are compelled to look. When our evolutionary predecessors gathered on the African savanna a million years ago and the leaves next to them moved, the ones who didn't look are not our ancestors. The ones who did look passed on to us the genetic trait that neuroscientists call "the establishing reflex." And that is the brain syndrome activated by television continuously - sometimes as frequently as once per second. That is the reason why the industry phrase, "glue eyeballs to the screen," is actually more than a glib and idle boast. It is also a major part of the reason why Americans watch the TV screen an average of four and a half hours a day.