Teaching the attention economy

Last year, I read with the students in my American Studies class Michael Goldhaber's article on the attention economy, with mixed results. They understood the concept at the broadest level, but were largely unable to wrap their heads around the finer points. We talked about celebrities and how Paris Hilton could conceivably never pay for anything because people want her attention and will give her things for it. We talked about reputation and respect. But when pushed to the limits, they couldn't get past either attention as another form of money or credit, or returning to a barter system.

We then read Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which I think is a good treatment of an attention economy. The concept of Whuffie made more sense, but again, there was resistance, due to the fact that it is science fiction, and takes place in a post-scarcity world.

I think maybe that's one of the problems - scarcity. Goldhaber talks about attention as a scarce, and therefore valuable, resource. The problem is it can't replace material goods, especially scarce goods such as food. How can we imagine an attention economy that is not simply a credit/money replacement or a barter system? How do we get to the point where attention translates into food and shelter and luxury items and more attention, and do we want to get there?