Age And "Time"

[Cyre2067]

Another way of looking at it is to think of it as being relative. At the age of 1, 1 year is a lifetime. At the age of 10, 1 year is 1/10 of your lifetime. At the age of 50, 1 year is 1/50 of your lifetime, and so on. So, relativity makes it seem like "time" goes faster as you get older?

This makes the most logical sense to me. The more 'time' you accrue the less each hour is 'worth', perceptively speaking.

 

[Menna]

Time was in quotations because I know time is an illusion and is used as a reference here in 3D.

Thank you all for the replies it makes more sense now and seekintruth that explanation fits.

The emotions I feel when I look over my shoulder are...

Urgency - To get my life settled more (Career, Female Partner (and I am excited about this because the advice I received here about my last relationship has given me more of the tools to be a better male partner and feel I can establish a healthy relationship with a female counterpart that is ready), living space of my own)

Happiness - because I had a very good childhood and I have learned and done alot so far

Wonder - What will the future bring have to stay vigilant when new things arise so that the "Time" we spend is on something worthwhile. Know when to put the bull**** aside and spend time on the important stuff.

 

[Mountain Crown]

Who we are and how we perceive is from memory which is storage of all past experiences, learning and conditioning.

It seems to me that the basis of the illusion of time might be that our minds use the past to interpret the present and to scenarios for the future.

Children have less memory (past) and are experiencing things new, so there’s less of the illusion -

They’re in the process of learning it.

 

[Palinurus]

This is a really interesting subject which has me kept occupied for quite a while now. I'm 67 yo and in the thick of things so to speak. I would like to offer two different inputs of a factual character. Let's say soft data based on more or less systematic private observations.

First off, I'm a very organized and disciplined person. Many years ago I had a period in which I fully reorganized everything I had to do on a daily routine basis (like housekeeping, personal care, shopping and such) in order to maximize efficiency with the aim of having as much time left as possible for productive and hobby activities. Those routines haven't really changed over the years, as they already were the most efficient ways of operating I could think of and manage.

So, doing those things for the umpteenth time every day I have noticed lately that I need nearly about twice as much time now for those activities as I did say about 30 years ago when I had fully reorganized. But the tricky part of it is, that I don't really notice my slowness while busy but only when I watch the clock to measure how I'm doing. Spooky, eh?

I take this to mean that I'm getting slower as I'm aging and need more time to perform the necessary daily routines, and all other activities as well for that matter. As for the why of all this -- I just don't know, really. Wear and tear I suppose...

Secondly, I have an observation to share from the field of music making. I'm very much a classical music lover and I've noticed time and again that for instance conductors tend to slow down over the years while performing or recording works they already did while much younger. For a time, I made it a sort of point to compare systematically several recordings from different time periods of the same work by the same conductor or soloist, or whatever. In the majority of cases the performances of their younger years were noticeably faster than those of later years, in the order of several minutes to the hour or up to 10-15%. So, they too were slowing down over the years -- maybe even without them noticing this.
I'm almost certain this applies as well to say for instance jazz icons improvising solo on their respective instruments over the years, but I'm not really in the know about those.
Again, the why of it all eludes me greatly.

Intriguing, to say the least.

Thank you for reading. fwiw.

 

[echo]

I stumbled upon this today and thought it might be an interesting read:

"Awe expands the perception of time"
http://faculty-gsb.stanford.edu/aaker/pages/documents/TimeandAwe2012_workingpaper.pdf

Whether people believe they have enough time to accomplish their goals affects
numerous outcomes. First, perceived time availability influences some prosocial behaviors.
Classic studies on the power of the situation demonstrate that feeling time pressured hinders the
tendency to help someone in distress (Darley & Batson, 1973). Insufficient time availability is
also a common barrier to volunteering and engaging in community service (Strober & Weinberg
1980), behaviors linked to greater well-being (Thoits & Hewitt, 2001). Therefore, we predicted
that creating the perception that more time is available would augment people’s willingness to
spend time helping others.

Second, time perception affects choices people make about how to live life. For instance,
feeling that one lacks time is associated with markers of unhealthy diets, such as eating fewer
family meals at home (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2003) and consuming fast food (Darian &
Cohen, 1995). Furthermore, not having enough time is an oft-cited reason for not engaging in
leisure experiences (Mannell & Zuzanek, 1991). Time perception may also influence decisions to
acquire experiences as opposed to material goods (Van Boven & Gilovich, 2003), a preference
pattern associated with enhanced well-being (Zhong & Mitchell, 2010). Indeed, one quality of
experiential products is that they, by their nature, require the experiencer devote time to savor the
attendant feelings and sensations (Quoidbach et al., 2010). Thus, we predicted that inducing a
sense of ample time availability would lead people to choose experiences over material goods.

Third, one’s sense of the amount of time available is often an indicator of health and
well-being. Feeling that time is constricted is associated with a heightened risk of hypertension
(Yan et al., 2003) and ailments such as headaches, stomach pain, and poor sleep quality
(Kivimäki, Kalimo, & Julkunen, 1996; Spence, Helmreich, & Pred, 1987). Mental health also
suffers to the extent time feels compressed. For instance, people who report feeling “always”
rushed have lower life satisfaction than do others (Robinson & Godbey, 1997), and feeling one
has little time available has been linked to depression symptoms (Roxburgh, 2004).
Consequently, we predicted that altering perceptions of time, through eliciting awe, would lead
people to experience boosts in momentary life satisfaction.

I remember reading a book on Taoism that said the perception of time is important as to "how" people age. The Taoists meditate and do all sorts of things to "slow down" the perception of time. I can't remember which book it was, unfortunately.

While slowing down seems good for stress, I believe it is also good to feel a "sense of urgency" that leads to action.

Also, I think I read a quote from Gurdijeff about self-remembering and the passage of time..that time goes by quicker when we don't remember ourselves?

 

[Esote]

...

If slowing down when aging, then it takes more time to do something, which would be a good reason why the subjective time seems to go faster : Say some kind of work took half day when young, but when old the same work takes a full day. Now it's no surprise if you realize that a whole day went by, and you only did that much...

Time isn't faster, actually we would only be slower !

Anyway, it sure is relative. Take your time !

And, as echo wrote, let's first "slow down" the perception of time. ;)

 

[echo]

I remember reading a book on Taoism that said the perception of time is important as to "how" people age. The Taoists meditate and do all sorts of things to "slow down" the perception of time. I can't remember which book it was, unfortunately.

I forgot to add that what the old Taoists had observed was indeed that time seems to move faster as we age.

One aspect might be that the control system literally "steals our time", both in a direct way (overwhelming people with duties) and in an indirect way: ponerizing our thoughts to the point where we are not able to "live the creativity in the moment" anymore, as children do, or "see with our soul". That would lead to our present moment being empty, lifeless, because all experience of creative energy is denied. Thus our time becomes less intense and basically meaningless, so we percieve it to be "less".

Again, Momo (see this thread) comes to mind. In the book, the "grey men" feed on mankind by stealing their time. As one could understand it, the grey men represent the psychopaths/4D STS control system and they steal our time by making us believe lies that prevent us from experiencing love/creativity, thus stealing our "soul energy", which we then percieve - together with other negative feelings - as a sensation that we "have no time", or that "time flies by".

Just some thoughts, fwiw.

I thought this was interesting and can't help to feel there's something to it.

 

[Average Joe]

When a baby is born into the world, it has just come from a dimension which has no time. This takes a little getting used to. The more we get use to it, the less we notice it, and it just flies by.

 

[mkrnhr]

Some other explanation may be related to the fact that a child learns more within a shortest interval of time than an adult does, and has a better memory of recent life experiences.

 

[Buddy]

Time was in quotations because I know time is an illusion and is used as a reference here in 3D.

Yep, I sometimes think of time (in the singular tense and as a 'singularity') as just an abstract sensing of a gestalt. What I seem to actually feel though, I would describe more like co-ordinations and timings, though I can't exactly explain why or how.

The emotions I feel when I look over my shoulder are...

Urgency - To get my life settled more (Career, Female Partner (and I am excited about this because the advice I received here about my last relationship has given me more of the tools to be a better male partner and feel I can establish a healthy relationship with a female counterpart that is ready), living space of my own)

Happiness - because I had a very good childhood and I have learned and done alot so far

Wonder - What will the future bring have to stay vigilant when new things arise so that the "Time" we spend is on something worthwhile. Know when to put the bull**** aside and spend time on the important stuff.

Interesting mix and I can relate. If you had indicated that what you were feeling distilled to a 'fear of running out of time', I might have said "there's your pos-entropic hyper-time right there!" :) But you didn't, so I won't.

-------------

Lots of interesting ideas posted here. I'm thinking along the same line as others, that when we are kids we live more in the moment, experiencing our life in the now more fully.

Co-here-ence with reality?

As adults though, we tend to spend much of our thought and energy either reliving the past or anticipating the future so we are not in the moment as much...

De-co-here-ence with reality mixed with some fear that a sense of control over 'time' is escaping us? When I learned that there is no difference in the physiological response of fear and excitement (thanks Laura!), I started thinking that my fear of time getting shorter was really a distress from missing 'being in the moment'. Kinda' weird to say that. Maybe it's just that I settled on that explanation due to now being able to view excite-ment in novel ways.

Lots of interesting and provocative ideas here, I agree.

 

[Graalsword]

This is a question I have also wondered since a lot time ago.

Maybe a way to depict is a spiral, or several orbital circles. It is said that when a propeller is spinning, the perception of speed is different near the centre than near the outer area. The perception of "time" is also different for atronauts who are in space compared to people on earth. So maybe a similar thing occurs as life goes.

Also, when you begin an activity that you had never done, at the beginning it is very common that it seems that a lot of time have passed, it could be a job, or whatever. Once you get used to it, it seems that it lasts less time than at the beginning. A similar thing might happen with life. Also, everything seems bigger and longer for a child, and that changes hen you grow up.

I think time is flying by faster than ever. The weeks seem to just zip past. I'm thinking lately it could have something to do with the coming of the Wave. Also there are days when riding in the car, we seem to be crawling along instead of going 40-45 mph. Everything seems to be in slow motion.

This is also probably happening too. Maybe the closeness of the wave has to do with it.

Another way of looking at it is to think of it as being relative. At the age of 1, 1 year is a lifetime. At the age of 10, 1 year is 1/10 of your lifetime. At the age of 50, 1 year is 1/50 of your lifetime, and so on. So, relativity makes it seem like "time" goes faster as you get older?

This makes the most logical sense to me. The more 'time' you accrue the less each hour is 'worth', perceptively speaking.

I agree, this is a very good explanation.

Also for someone who live in Saturnus or Neptune (just random examples) might perceive time very different than on Earth or Venus, maybe for them one Saturnian year(30months) is perceived like our terran year(12 months)

 

[SethianSeth]

Secondly, I have an observation to share from the field of music making. I'm very much a classical music lover and I've noticed time and again that for instance conductors tend to slow down over the years while performing or recording works they already did while much younger. For a time, I made it a sort of point to compare systematically several recordings from different time periods of the same work by the same conductor or soloist, or whatever. In the majority of cases the performances of their younger years were noticeably faster than those of later years, in the order of several minutes to the hour or up to 10-15%. So, they too were slowing down over the years -- maybe even without them noticing this.
I'm almost certain this applies as well to say for instance jazz icons improvising solo on their respective instruments over the years, but I'm not really in the know about those.
Again, the why of it all eludes me greatly.

I can definitely affirm this experience from my own music making. When a song is new and we are performing it for the first handful of times, it always races along without our perceiving it as being "fast." Then when we hear a recording from the performance, we are bowled away by our "rushing." By the time the song has been with us for over a year and it gets recorded studio-style, it is markedly slower than when it was born. This happens nearly every time, and we usually consider it "a song growing into itself" because that is what it feels like subjectively. But I couldn't do more than speculate as to whether this speaks to the nature of time itself, or if it is more simply an increased intuitive flexibility within "the moment" due to practice and repetition. maybe a little of both...

 

[loreta]

Proust knew that Time was relative. He talks about Time as something... circular. It reminds me of a Mandala. You can go to the past, look at your past and live this past as it was the present and then you are in two dimensions, two real dimensions. So there is no a continuity but something ample, huge. You can not put Time in a box. Past, present and future are maybe at the same level. We try to give a definition of Time but maybe it is impossible to do it. And also, what is our individual life-time compare to the Universe? A millimeter of a second? Or less than that.

Proust is more than that, evidently. But he wrote something huge like time itself. Time is also change, and Time changes us. We can see that notion in Proust also. How Time can transform us. But I see ourselves as beings that live in and out of Time. Time is a fascinating subject, yes indeed.

 

[Jones]

Time is also change, and Time changes us. We can see that notion in Proust also. How Time can transform us. But I see ourselves as beings that live in and out of Time. Time is a fascinating subject, yes indeed.

So perhaps we need both not-time and time (or the illusion of it) so that we can transform?

 

[Palinurus]

Secondly, I have an observation to share from the field of music making. I'm very much a classical music lover and I've noticed time and again that for instance conductors tend to slow down over the years while performing or recording works they already did while much younger. For a time, I made it a sort of point to compare systematically several recordings from different time periods of the same work by the same conductor or soloist, or whatever. In the majority of cases the performances of their younger years were noticeably faster than those of later years, in the order of several minutes to the hour or up to 10-15%. So, they too were slowing down over the years -- maybe even without them noticing this.
I'm almost certain this applies as well to say for instance jazz icons improvising solo on their respective instruments over the years, but I'm not really in the know about those.
Again, the why of it all eludes me greatly.

I can definitely affirm this experience from my own music making. When a song is new and we are performing it for the first handful of times, it always races along without our perceiving it as being "fast." Then when we hear a recording from the performance, we are bowled away by our "rushing." By the time the song has been with us for over a year and it gets recorded studio-style, it is markedly slower than when it was born. This happens nearly every time, and we usually consider it "a song growing into itself" because that is what it feels like subjectively. But I couldn't do more than speculate as to whether this speaks to the nature of time itself, or if it is more simply an increased intuitive flexibility within "the moment" due to practice and repetition. maybe a little of both...

Thank you for sharing this, SethianSeth.
It reminds me of the fact that almost all the live recordings from Maria Callas are livelier and faster than her studio recordings of the same works.
This speaks for the sense of urgency being part of the explanation of these types of time and timing differences, osit.