The construct of time feels so
real. And the fact that we surround ourselves with clocks, learn how to tell time from an early age, and live our lives aligned to precise schedules just reinforces this feeling of realness, and reifies the illusion. Seems like we are in a very literal sense time keeping (or “creating” might be a better word) machines.
At some point I got fascinated by flow experiences and the loss of all sense of time. While I’ve experienced this while coding, improvising music has always been the gateway that fascinated me most. No time to keep; no measures to count; nothing but the next note. There’s something about staying continuously in contact with the present moment that makes the time construct just dissolve.
And all that’s left is this continuously unfolding moment. No time. Just now.
I remember hearing things when I was younger like “time is a construct” and not knowing wtf people meant. Flow states helped the conceptual vs. experiential versions of time make more sense, and it’s pretty fascinating to see more about the neurological basis for the experience of time. It seems to just underscore the fact that time (as we think we know it) is an experience our brain creates for us. Clearly there’s some underlying phenomena that these neurons are representing, but it blows my mind a little to ponder how much we orient our understanding of life and experience around the constructs we’ve created vs. exploring other ways to conceptualize and experience it.
At some point I got fascinated by flow experiences and the loss of all sense of time. While I’ve experienced this while coding, improvising music has always been the gateway that fascinated me most. No time to keep; no measures to count; nothing but the next note. There’s something about staying continuously in contact with the present moment that makes the time construct just dissolve.
And all that’s left is this continuously unfolding moment. No time. Just now.
I remember hearing things when I was younger like “time is a construct” and not knowing wtf people meant. Flow states helped the conceptual vs. experiential versions of time make more sense, and it’s pretty fascinating to see more about the neurological basis for the experience of time. It seems to just underscore the fact that time (as we think we know it) is an experience our brain creates for us. Clearly there’s some underlying phenomena that these neurons are representing, but it blows my mind a little to ponder how much we orient our understanding of life and experience around the constructs we’ve created vs. exploring other ways to conceptualize and experience it.