tech
Is time a figment of our imaginations?
Cosmologists and physicists come up empty handed when they attempt to pin down time. So what, exactly, is it?
TL;DR
- 'Clock time' may be a mathematical tool for coordination, not an independent physical phenomenon.
- The phenomenon of 'time famine' is linked to increased efficiency and productivity, paradoxically leading to less perceived time and reduced quality of life.
- Our sensory and brain structures do not have dedicated mechanisms for tracking time, and our experience of it is highly variable.
- Conditions like akinetopsia and experiences under certain drugs demonstrate how perception can drastically alter our sense of time.
- Quantum physics suggests that measurement choices can influence past events, implying that 'past' events unfold as we observe them.
- Indigenous communities like the Aymara and Amondawa have different conceptions of time, with the latter having no word for it.
- 'Lived time' is a personal, malleable experience of change, distinct from the numerical counter of clock time.
- Combating time famine involves recognizing the clock as a tool, consciously zooming out from fast-changing sensations, and paying attention to the connections in each moment.