This is a post I will review regularly and update like a time capsule about time :
I have been interested in “Time” for a while. It is something that I find particularly troubling. It is why I have that little catchphrase at the top right of my blog. I simply want to capture here some thoughts and questions I ask myself about time.
Like many, I “feel” once in a while that “time” flies fast and others that it lingers. Is it my perception of time or actually time that dilates and contracts as we move through space at variable speed as we spin around stars in the Universe? For sure this further confinement is more taxing on all around us and collectively we are probably slowing time by moving less! In general, I think that time actually shrinks and expands under the influence of the entire world. (not just the people but the whole universe in its infinite entirety)
Science says that time and space should be considered as one thing. Essentially if I move around in space, I also move in time. Time is personal to each one of us and does not tick/flow at the same speed if I move fast through my garden compared to the motionless flowers. I like things that go fast or do things rather than sit, I struggle to read because it feels so slow to capture data. I like to make decisions and move on. I want to ski fast, ride a fast motorbike, drive a fast car, live. Maybe it is for me a disguised way to slow-down time. Unfortunately, it is not possible to “stop” moving in this time-space, you are always drifting because of the laws of physics.
Do we perceive time passing more quickly as we get older simply because our brains get slower to process things? Science has shown that our brains can only process data at a few frames per second. Our brain gives us the illusion of continuity when it actually can only capture discrete events and process them with little speed in comparison to machines. So the quicker you think, the slower the world appears to you. Which is helpful when tripping during a walk to avoid a bad fall but rarely used consciously to simply enjoy the beauty of Nature. Next time you see something beautiful try to think very fast and you will probably “really” make it last longer.
If time travel was possible, I do not think I would want to revisit the past. There are things I have done or said that I am less proud of than others and wish I had taken a different path, however, I am happy that they have happened so I could learn from them by remembering them. It is the same for good things, romantically it would be nice to relive good times but they would most certainly lose much of their magic, I prefer to remember them as a sailing tack-point in my lifetime. I believe my present to be richer because of my past. I am not so clear-cut on the possibility of travelling in the future. I would like to know it but do not want to miss out on the journey to it either. The good news is that I do not have to make a choice.
So the present is a good place and the only place I exist. I seek to simply enjoy today because soon it will be the good old days that I reminisce. I don’t like planning and it stresses me, it is creating a “certainty” in the future. With confinement, many find comfort in planning a new holiday or a future event, it simply does not work for me. I cannot change my past and arguably cannot do much about my future either as it will never exist until I act. One could be scared by all this weirdness and philosophical thinking. Although my views create a profound need for sparkles and adrenaline in my present, I still think that I am in control of where I swim in the river, just not in control of where the river is taking me. It also makes me less anxious about having made bad decisions or making mistakes in my present or even fearing my own ineluctable entropy.
This is also why I want to do things now and not wait for tomorrow. If I have to wait for tomorrow, let’s start early.
I could not be more proud of my son, who just participated in a Hackathon at Imperial University where he is studying Computer Science.
