![]() ![]() ![]() Time then, Eagleman argues, is ultimately “a construction of the brain.” Does “Matrix” Time Exist? It’s trying to put together the best, most useful story of what’s happening out there in the world. What your brain’s telling you you see is not always what’s out there. The brain goes through a lot of trouble to edit and present this story to you of what’s going on out there and how fast or slowly it happens. Instead, Eagleman explains, our minds filter the info before presenting it to us: As Eagleman puts it, time is “metasensory” and “rides on top of all the others.” Because our perception of time is intricately tied up with our emotions and memories, the information we take in about how our hours are spent isn’t raw data. In contrast to our other senses like touch and taste, which are located in specific parts of our brains, our sense of time is woven throughout our neural matter. David Eagleman, neuroscientist and foremost researcher on time perception, calls this phenomenon “brain time,” and unlike clock time, its measurements are very subjective. Depending on our circumstances, time may seem to contract or expand, speed up or slow down. Yet how we perceive time is not always so accurate. Even without an external chronometer to aid us, our internal clocks often do an excellent job of tracking time if I asked you to guess the time right now, you’d probably be pretty close. “Clock time” can be broken into minutes, seconds, and nanoseconds, and can be objectively measured. And once you understand it, you can become something of a time wizard - quickening or slowing the way time feels, and even making your life seem longer than it really is. That’s a fun theory, but there’s an actual neurological reason for how our perception of time changes as we age. Why does time seem to slow down when you’re young, and speed up as you get older? You may have heard it said that this phenomenon can be chalked up to the fact that when you’re younger, each year comprises a larger percentage of your total lifespan and thus feels more sizeable one year is 1/14 of your life when you’re fourteen, but only 1/40 when you’re 40. If you’re longer in the tooth, chances are your summer seems to have gone by in a quick blur – much like the rest of your year. If you’re a young buck, you’ll probably feel like you fit six months into the last three. Your answer to that question will likely depend on your age. Does it seem like your summer lasted forever, that it slowly floated along in a hot haze? Or did these last few months seem to go by in a blink? This article was originally published in August 2014.Īs we now approach the sunset of the summer season, take a look back on the last few months. With our archives now 3,500+ articles deep, we’ve decided to republish a classic piece each Sunday to help our newer readers discover some of the best, evergreen gems from the past. ![]()
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