#perceptionoftime

[hongchicken]

The Mystery of the Missing Time

Introduction

Have you ever felt like the day is passing you by faster than you can keep up with? Have you ever wondered where all the time has gone? It’s a common feeling, but it seems to be happening more and more.

In fact, scientist and philosophers alike have been trying to figure out the mystery of the missing time for years. It’s a complex issue with many theories, but it essentially boils down to one thing: time is slipping away faster than we can keep up with.

What Causes the Mystery of the Missing Time?

The mystery of the missing time is caused by a variety of factors, but the most commonly accepted reason is that our perception of time is changing. As we get older, our days seem to go by faster and faster. This is because our perception of time is relative, meaning that it changes according to our age, experiences, and expectations.

The more life experiences we have, the more our perception of time changes. We are used to things taking a certain amount of time and when that changes, it can feel like time is slipping away. For example, a day that felt like it would never end when you were a kid can now feel like it flew by in a blink of an eye.

Another factor that could be causing the mystery of the missing time is the fact that our brains are wired to focus on the present. We are constantly living in the moment, and this means that the future and past seem to slip away faster than we can keep up with.

Finally, the mystery of the missing time could also be caused by the fact that there are more distractions in our lives than ever before. We are constantly bombarded with emails, notifications, and other stimuli that pull us away from the present and make it difficult to focus on what is happening in the moment.

How Can We Combat the Mystery of the Missing Time?

The good news is that there are a few things we can do to combat the mystery of the missing time. The first is to practice mindfulness. This means taking the time to be present and focus on what is happening in the moment. This can help us to slow down our perception of time and gain a better understanding of how it passes.

Another way to combat the mystery of the missing time is to limit our distractions. This can be done by turning off notifications, setting aside specific times of the day to check emails, and focusing on one task at a time.

Finally, it can also be helpful to take breaks throughout the day. This can help us to recharge and get back in touch with our sense of time. Taking a walk, listening to music, or just taking a few moments to yourself can help us to gain back our sense of time.

Conclusion

The mystery of the missing time is something that has been plaguing us for years, but thankfully, there are a few things we can do to help combat it. By practicing mindfulness, limiting our distractions, and taking breaks throughout the day, we can slow down our perception of time and gain back our sense of it. So, the next time you feel like time is slipping away, remember these tips and take a moment to be present.

[unframedthoughts]

The interpretative bias of collective knowledge theory

(Ambitious title, simple idea. Random picture.)

When I started putting words on my ideas about the universe, religion and human nature, my goal was to be as free from the influence of existing theories as possible. That way, I would be able to make my mind work in search of my own concepts without being corrupted by existing ideas. With that rule consciously established, I started putting forth my own truths and interpretations to my immediate fellow human beings – friends and colleagues - so that I could benefit from their interpretations and study their reactions to my ideas.

To my surprise, I was met with the argument that my ideas could not hold value unless they were based and defended by existing documentation. In the eyes of those I talked to, I would have to proactively refer to previous theories, devised by other human beings, to be considered worthy of being heard.

It struck me as a strange reflex. I was expecting counter-arguments on the core of my concepts, not on their lack of scholarly support. I was expecting criticism on the depth of my thoughts, their possible contradictions, but not on the form of their background. This reaction they had made me realize how deeply we cannot function without enclosing our thoughts in an existing frame. I choose to call this the interpretative bias of collective knowledge theory. Let us look into what I mean by that.

As human beings trailing through time, we have undeniably benefited from building up on the strength of collective knowledge. This is what has made humanity advance : we are constantly adding to the discoveries of previous generations and increasing the depth of our knowledge. Every generation did not start from scratch, having to re-invent the wheel and everything that followed each time around. Across centuries we have discovered a lot (probably forgotten a lot as well), and it has allowed us to constantly develop the overall knowledge of humankind.

This concept can be wholeheartedly agreed to when it comes to tangible domains, things that can be verified, proven, that are palpable and undeniable: biology, technology, astronomy, and many others. Even when these domains require a human-made frame –such as mathematics- their practical uses make them absolutely rational.

But when it comes to the intangible, which by essence cannot be proven and never will be - such as religion – isn’t each individual better off thinking it through by themselves at first, freed from the influence of existing theories ? Only later challenging their ideas with others, in a mutually beneficial venture ? I believe so. I’m thinking, how challenging can the debate get if the different parties are enclosed in the same structure of thinking to begin with, basing themselves off of existing works, merely adding developments and analysis to them that will, by essence, be limited ?

This behavior is what I define as the bias of collective knowledge. We have formatted ourselves to accept that we can only build up on what others have already achieved. Anything we undertake must be based on existing accomplishments and referenced as such to be considered meaningful. And I disagree : by essence, some of the fundamental topics shaping one’s understanding of the world cannot be checked, proven right or wrong, by any means, neither now nor ever. They pertain to realms that cannot be verified. As such, exclusively basing a thought process on what other humans have deemed is the right way to do is painfully limiting to the fulfillment of one’s potential. We search for guidelines in what is ‘known’ before even zeroing in on what we wish to think about.

I believe that everyone should feel they have the power and capacity to redefine in their own terms, from scratch, anything that has ever been thought of before, using the unique thinking capacity they obtained through billions of years of evolutionary randomness. One’s true potential is attained when it is freed from preconceptions on how to think. And that is a beautiful thing : every human being possesses the power to develop their own explanation, their own conception of the world. Unfortunately, the collective knowledge bias bridles our depth of thinking from fear of being unable to back it up with existing theories. These limitations are aggravating factors to our wretchedness, as they insidiously push us into embracing concepts we dare not think through.

[unframedthoughts]

Perception of Time (part 2)

(Each of these are galaxies containing billions of planets. This picture covers a tiny spot of the observable Universe.)

Now that you have given some thought to how we might be challenged in perceiving time, think again about the theory of evolution. While many people accept it as the de facto truth, isn’t it still a difficult concept to integrate ? And that even for a convinced believer in science ? A process which took millions of years to unravel is hard to grasp : a cell took a million years to develop into two cells, a few million years later fish grew paws, got on the (now existing) land and somehow evolved to monkeys ; throw in a common ancestor somewhere in there and bam ! here we are. Strutting about, thinking of doing… the groceries.

Even with a lot of goodwill and scientific rationality, it remains hard to get a feel for the unrolling of these events. Their timeline is so immense, our delusions of grandeur have ample space to slither in and deny them. This is where our feelings are influenced by our inability to handle that timeline, making us believe in something, somehow above our understanding, explaining our existence. Our lifetime, a seemingly consequent amount of time to us, really means nothing on the scale of the universe. Now think about it : if we cannot feel the meaning of a billion years, how easy does it become to feel another explanation for it ?

There is none. There are just things we cannot grasp and should accept as ungraspable. Instead of graciously taking this free humility lesson courtesy of the Universe, we are inventing explanations that cannot be verified to fill the void. It is not in our nature to accept something making us out to be meaningless and trivial. The simple, straightforward mix of probabilities and billions of years passing by does not quite have the appeal to our ego than that of a superior being behind it all.

Inventing ourselves a meaning will be necessary until we have learnt to accept our shortcomings in understanding certain concepts, and appease their impact on how we feel. I have mostly used the concept of Time as one we have trouble with. But what about ‘nothingness’ ? Try Imagining being dead for a second ? And how about ‘no Universe’ ? That is impossible, because of the ‘non-existing’, ‘non-thinking’ part of the task, which our physiology is not designed to handle. How inconvenient ! How easy would it be to scrap together a life-after-death paradigm (hello, paradise !) as a more satisfying, feel-able explanation ? Physiological limitations prevent us from envisaging ourselves as flukes, alone and purposeless in the universe.

If one believes in the science behind genetics, they should believe in the science explaining the human trail on earth and the appearance of the universe. They should believe in the overwhelming probability that other forms of life exist in this universe, since as far as we know it is infinite (yet expanding ! Try figuring this one out).

An ungraspable amount of time elapsing made our existence possible. Because we cannot feel the timeline of these events, they lose credibility to us, in spite of their scientific validity. In the meantime, we still need an explanation for it. We still need an explanation for us. For our presence, for our aspirations of purpose on Earth. The self-centered nature of human beings runs deep and the quest for a meaning, no matter how far-fetched it is when confronted with reality, overpowers all common sense.

[unframedthoughts]

Perception of time (part 1)

(Spoiler : it is messed up and responsible for many of our absurd ideas.)

The staple of religion is that we somehow were chosen to have a unique relationship with a higher power. From this ‘god-driven purpose’ we infer that everything we do not understand comes from the will of this unquestionable, almighty power.

This take on our existence is incompatible with the idea that we simply evolved from ‘lesser’ forms of life. We think impossible for the beautifully complex and thinking machinery we are to possiby be the trivial consequence of a slow, incremental, and totally unplanned process. No, we must have been designed as the finished product. We are pretty much flawless as it is, after all. Our teeth fall off of our mouths for lack of space on our jaws ? Whatever, that not deter us from thinking we cannot possiby evolve from our current state.

However, I believe a physiological inability to comprehend, integrate, feel certain concepts - such as Time - skews our perceptions, leading us to believe, as a fill-in, in the tailor-made explanation of a higher power behind our existence. To illustrate that point, let’s look at the immense timeline of the universe. Can you truly feel the magnitude of the 13+ billion years that have passed before getting your 70-or-so on Earth…? Can you wrap your head around that amount of time ? Day after day, year after year, and the universe was there, physically, before we were around…just sitting there, waiting, no purpose, no finality. Is the concept of a universe existing, expanding, evolving , slowly, but without us, available in your body to feel…? I doubt so.

Let’s start even smaller : try right now to think about what it was like to live 150 years ago. On the scale of the universe, that amount of time is virtually nothing. But can you imagine it ? Can you relate to people who lived a mere 150 years ago ?

I live in Paris : huge chunks of the city were pretty much the same in the 1920s. Can I picture them ? Sure. In black and white, just like in pictures I have seen from these times. But can I picture myself living there back then, in color, with clothes and people from that time ? Can I picture relationships with people from back then, and do I have the feeling that they were absolutely the same as we are now (which they were) ? Absolutely not. And this is less than a century back.

Now, try and picture yourself living in the middle-ages, or in 2000 BC. Can you envision yourself carelessly strutting about like you are now, thinking of doing the groceries…? Can you imagine that people back then might have very well been doing just the same ? Or does it feel like, for some reason, they most likely did not have the same range of emotions or understanding as we have now ?

Can you genuinely relate to them, or is it that when you try imagining a conversation with someone from that time it feels like talking to a zoo animal ? They were exactly the same as we are now : feeling the same emotions, suffering from the same limitations, having the same complexity in their perception of things, depth and facets to their personalities. It was a different time, sure ; a different society, possibly with less overall common knowledge. But physiologically, they were not any different. Hence, why do we feel that mentally, they must have been ?

Because the opposite does not feel natural. It does not feel plausible, it does not feel real. As far as we are concerned, people from 150 years ago might as well have belonged to a different specie in another universe. Shaking off the ungraspable feeling of “they were not like us” is impossible. It is inherent to human beings not to be able to understand an epoch that is not theirs, because we cannot physiologically fathom the concept of a timespan longer than our lifetime.

[dark-hearted-mermaid]

Why?,

when i'm looking forward to something the days leading to it seems to last alot longer,

and when the day comes it goes really fast.

But all the days have the same amount of time...