Time and Perception

“Do you have time today?" how often have i asked that, or been asked that question?

Dozens of times, but we never really have time, do we? It's impossible, isn't it? Yeah, i know, it's meant differently, but when i thought about it, it's actually an ironic twist. Humans, these so-called superior beings with all their intelligence, invent something that complicates everything: Time. yeah, yeah, i hear the "but..." already. sure, some technical solutions, like the internet and stuff, yeah, it's practical for that. and as a boss, i'd definitely want my employees to work as long as i pay them. but the rest? do we really need it in everyday life?

let's take those 8 hours, for example. it's manageable; it's a third of the day. a third is sleep (or should be). well, a third is easier to visualize than one twenty-fourth. but let's be honest, we don't really know how "long" that is. same with temperature. if i tell you it was -10°c, you know it was -10°c, but you could just as easily say, "i had to wear a thick winter jacket." because the "felt" temperature always depends on other things.

and besides other things, it also depends on very personal things. because my "felt" temperature depends on me, too. with temperature, the "normal" range is relatively predictable, but with time? it completely falls apart. time is relative squared. it's not just about how fast you're moving through space, but also how you perceive it.

time is kind of paradoxical, not time as a "variable constant," but as a concept. it's somewhat important for society, at least one as advanced as ours, but it also restricts us quite a bit. without time, we couldn't waste it. without time, there'd be no age. you're as old as you feel anyway, so throw that out the window. without wasted time, we wouldn't miss it, because it's pointless. we can't turn it back, and probably never will. as long as you're content, and let's say content rather than happy, as long as you're content, everything's fine. (after we've figured out the difference between the two. i "feel" like happy is higher than content; content is in the middle, happy is above, unhappy is below.)

i'm not sure where this is going or what the "point" of this is. hopefully, it makes you think. i find the idea interesting: what if time was just another unit of measurement, like weight or voltage, and we didn't structure our lives around it?

it's a radical example, maybe, but humans manage just fine without knowing the mass of the higgs boson in their daily lives.

(i don't know if or when i'll publish this, or if it will be in this form, or if i'll change anything. i'll take a little time to think about it 😃)

i took a ‘little’ bit more, didn’t change anything just will add this:

Perhaps the goal isn't to manage our time better, but to create more moments where we don't feel the need to manage it at all. Moments where time as a concept simply disappears.