Life without our conventional understanding of time would look very different.
Alan Burdick's "The Secret Life of Time" got me thinking about something that I often ponder when I'm procrastinating or stressing about a deadline. In these moments, I entertain myself by attempting to unravel our social construct of time, and usually conclude that the deadline that I'm sweating over doesn't even exist, and it's not worth the effort or stress it takes to meet it. It may be an unhealthy rationalization for turning things in late, but it does allow some space for my mind to run free. My analysis won't be as intelligent as St. Augustine's, but I think we're basically on the same page.
If you think about it (with an open mind), what we call 'time' doesn't really exist at all. Let's start with seconds. You've probably taken around 3 (+/- 1) seconds to read this sentence, which seems very tangible to you (If you're wondering how long three seconds is, check out my first blog post here). But really, what is this thing we call a "second"? Yes, it's a sixtieth of a minute, which is the formal definition (it actually comes from the periodicity of radiation of the cesium-133 atom but forget about that for a second and just go with me here). So a second is one sixtieth of a minute... But what is a minute? Well that's one sixtieth of an hour.. Which is one twenty-fourth of "day", which is one three hundred sixty fifth of a "year" (except when it's not), which is one tenth of a decade... and so on.
So what part of our concept of time is truly concrete? You may argue that our idea of a "day" is our most reliable breakdown of time, based on the Earth's changing position with respect to the Sun. To this, I only partially agree. Yes, our idea of a day successfully takes into account an object outside of our immediate surroundings - the sun. But the "time that it takes to go from daytime to nighttime to daytime" is anything but concrete. In reality, the length of a day changes continuously. The differences are miniscule, but they are there, nevertheless. If you don't believe me, see for yourself here. For now, let's just say that every day is 24 hours exactly, and in that time, the Sun appears to make one complete rotation around the Earth (No this is not what is actually happening, this is why I used the word appears, but try to see the larger picture). Would this justify our creation of a "day"? I don't think so. Why does one day = one sun cycle? Why not two cycles, or three? We could still sleep at "night", but we'd have to sleep three times before we'd reach the next "day". Think about it.
When I'm seeking to relieve myself from stress and rationalize my procrastination, I find comfort in the idea that hours, minutes, and seconds don't really exist. There is no such thing as a December 1st deadline - it's just a convenient little box we put things in to help us stay organized. That's all time is. I'm not talking about time as a universal force or dimension, but mankind's creation. It's been forced on us and we've taken it in, materialized it, and worked it into the fabric of our existence. We use it to categorize, separate, and document periods and instances for our supposed personal benefit, but most of the time it acts as a constant reminder that our life ticks closer to its end with every second. Earth, the solar system, the universe - these elements of our environment don't need clocks, calendars or stopwatches to function properly. They run on real, organic time, which in my opinion we know very little about. What if true time isn't linear, and is circular instead? Maybe our understanding of this complex force has blinded us from reality. Maybe we should abandon time altogether. Maybe that's the key to true peace and happiness.
I hope you've enjoyed this ride on my train of thought, but unfortunately our excursion must end here. If you're reading this, you're likely dealing with this oppressive force called time in one of two ways. You are either 1) Dealing with the post-traumatic stress that came from trying to finish your college applications and/or your blog post before midnight on December 1st, or 2) rushing to finish your 6 comments before the end of the night on Sunday, December 3rd. Whatever your personal situation may be, remember this when you begin to panic over that deadline, appointment time, or morning alarm - the time that you're stressing over doesn't really exist. You are free. You have the choice to follow the guidelines that society has laid out for you, or not. Real time is controlled by you, and you alone. You are late if you decide you are late, not because a clock tells you so. Life without time is bliss. Take some time and enjoy that ignorance.
This blog presents an interesting idea. Time doesn't exist concretely, and I would say that many other things don't either. This might not be a great example, but distances don't really exist either. What is an inch? 1/12th of a foot, which is 1/3 of a yard, which is 1/1760th of a mile and so on. But an inch doesn't really mean anything other than a distance that we agree to call a "inch".
ReplyDeleteI like this analysis. Going with your one day = one sun cycle, weeks and months seem really irrelevant to me. Like I get that you rise with the sun and go to sleep when it sets (kinda), but why do weeks have 7 days? Why not 5 (where we'd go to school for only 3 days a week lol). Why do we actually care about the moon having 30 day cycles enough to call it a month? Anyways, time is a man-made construct!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post, and it got me thinking. However, I'm not sure that I agree with you. As Kevin said, there are lots of things that are just defined using each other in a self-referential cycle, but that is because these are units of measurement. An inch is a human construct, and cannot be defined concretely, however inches are man-made constructs that measure something very real. They measure distance, which is real, and (ironically) much harder to wrap our minds around, so we define it using something we understand. Likewise, time is a very real, yet abstract thing, so we "dumb it down," so to speak, into seconds, minutes, and days so we can understand it. Time goes on pretty much everywhere in the universe, regardless of whether people are there to measure it, which would seem to point to it being more than just a construct. But that said, I thought this was a great post, and your writing style was very readable. (Also what you said about December 3rd was dead on)
ReplyDelete