Time Speeding Up

Originally posted by Koka
Surely in order to make such an observation such as time speeding up you would have to observing it from the outside and not affected by it yourself, if that makes sense?

Makes sense to me.
I don't believe time is speeding up, is their any evidence for it apart from world events 'happening' closer together making it seem like we are advancing at a quicker pace?

Okay, so my theory is that when you are 2, 4 or even 10 years old, a day or a week is a much bigger portion or percentage of your life than when you are 20, 40 and so on. Therefore, the perception when we are young is that time seems to move slowly and it is just the opposite when we are older. Crazy?

[edit on 20/10/07 by kosmicjack]

As an example, today, my husband and I were sitting on our deck trying to enjoy the beautiful fall weather when we noticed that there seemed to be a lot of small, private planes flying overhead every minute or so. We were talking about how this seems to be a ridiculous pattern in our neighborhood lately and so we decided to time the frequency.

We started the stop-watch as soon as we stopped hearing one plane and timed the interval between then and the next time we first heard another plane. (I know - not very scientific!)

But the point is this: We both would call out how long we perceived the interval to be before we actually looked at the watch. EVERY time we each called out "two minutes". EVERY time it was four minutes. We did this at least 8 to 10 times. It kind of blew our minds after a while. We just KNEW it had to be two minutes, everytime.

I agree that our perception of time will vary. It seems that many things can contribute to this

If we are in a hurry or if we have left plenty of time.
If we are busy, or we have nothing to do.
If we are happy and fulfilled or if we are unhappy and weighed down with worry.
If we are ill or if we are healthy.
If we have routine and plan, or leave things to happen unplanned.
If it is winter with short dark days or summer with long sunny days.

I also have often wondered (and discussed with friends) how easy it would be to "control" time by adjusting and manipulating how it is measured.

If you are the timekeeper in charge of the clock (Greenwich Meantime for example) who would notice if you speeded it up just a little or slowed it down, or if there was 59 seconds instead of 60 in a minute once every 24 hours.

Clocks are always slow or fast depending on how they are powered and if the master clock by which they are set was to change in small ways would we notice?

Many clocks automatically self-update with daylight savings (computers, sky tv etc) and we no longer have to remember to do this.

Whoever controls time is an ultimate master.

reply to post by YarlanZey


OMG! My husband gets testy everytime we have to "spring forward" or "fall back"! He thinks it's too arbitrary. He insists that its "right now" everywhere, only darker or lighter depending on where you live.

I can't say that he is exactly wrong but he sure ain't right! We just try to keep him out of the liquor! Just kidding. His only problem is that he is a smarty-pants know-it-all engineer!

I just dont get all this messing around.

I believe it was for the farmers (although I dont mind being corrected if I am wrong) so they had longer daylight hours to do their work. Why not just get up when it is light and finish when it is dark? Moving the time forward and backward doesnt add more daylight hours to the day. The sun will still set and rise when it should whether or not you add or take another hour.

reply to post by YarlanZey


So I guess you and my husband should start some sort of support group because I read your post to him and he shouted "Amen" and "Hallelujah"!

If you think about daylight savings time, it sort of seems like a farce - the whole notion of an hour, plus or minus, seems so arbitrary and meaningless.

I mean, in the summer (where we live) the sun still sets at about 8:45 and in the winter it sets at about 5:30. That is a really big difference - two hours and forty-five minutes.

If we left it the same, without the adjustments, it would be more like 7:45 in the summer and 6:30 in the winter - much more consistent, at an hour and fifteen minutes.

I can't believe more people don't have an opinion about "time" - it effects everyone!

How possible do you think it could be that someone could fiddle with the master timepiece and sneek a few changes here and there, maybe speed it up a little or slow it down?

We are all slaves to the clock. It controls every aspect of our lives. We depend on it to such an extent that we go against nature e.g. daylight savings. I am sure that our caveman counterparts went to sleep when it was dark and hunted when it was daylight.

We are ruled by the minute (hey even the second for some people). We are compelled to do certain things at set times of the day. We have rules for tv that are governed by time i.e. watershead, we have working hours, we have school hours, we eat at lunchtime 12.

Can anyone expand on this - my brain hurts and it is way past my bedtime

No I don't think time is speeding up, our lives are simply speeding up. The western world has to work more and more hours every year to retain the standard of living they had the previous year and as we all know when we are busy times flies. Also when we are off work and dreading to go back to the plantation then time really seems to fly! But I could be wrong it's just an asumption.

reply to post by YarlanZey


I think you have single-handedly created an entirely new thread topic: "Time is Money". Go for it.

It really does control everything. Even ATS, what with the advertising dollars not to mention all the time it sucks from me while I have conversations with myself in various threads! (Thread Killer!)

I found this great article about time perception and I remembered this thread so I thought I would post it. My own theory is mentioned (Darn, I'm no genius after all!) as well as several other very interesting ideas, including complexity of data perceived during an interval of time.

The Speed Of Life:
www.newdawnmagazine.com...

Also from a biological perspective, there is the ‘body temperature’ theory. In the 1930s the psychologist Hudson Hoagland conducted a series of experiments which showed that body temperature causes different perceptions of time. Once, when his wife was ill with the flu and he was looking after her, he noticed that she complained that he’d been away for a long time even if he was only away for a few moments. With admirable scientific detachment, Hoagland tested her perception of time at different temperatures, and found that the higher her temperature, the more time seemed to slow down for her, and the longer she experienced each time period. Hoagland followed this up with several semi-sadistic experiments with students, which involved them enduring temperatures of up to 65C, and wearing heated helmets. These showed that raising a person’s body temperature can slow down their sense of time passing by up to 20%. And the important point here may be that children have a higher body temperature than adults, which may mean that time is ‘expanded’ to them. And in a similar way, our body temperature becomes gradually lower as we grow older, which could explain a gradual ‘constriction’ of time.

Originally posted by searching_for_truth

Yes, this is true. Have you ever noticed sometimes? Let's say you are going to a place either you drive or someone else will drive you, it seems faster when you are on the way back from where you come from than on the way to a destination. (most cases, going to a destiation for the first time)

Maybe because of the familiarity of the road & other landmark.

That's the brain discounting familiar information. Processing power is used less on defining what has been previously experienced. Unless you don't want it to.

If you want time to move slower, perceive more in less time.