3 ms·

There's a simpler explanation for time flying by as we get older: the older you are, the smaller a fraction of your total lifespan is represented by a single ye

There's a simpler explanation for time flying by as we get older: the older you are, the smaller a fraction of your total lifespan is represented by a single year. One year is half of a two-year-old's life, but only one eightieth of an eighty-year-old's.

AlecSchueler 4y ago
Though if I make a stack of boxes the same size the 80th box will be a smaller proportion of the whole stack as is than the 4th box was, yet the individual boxes feel the same size. Edit: In saying that, if I was looking up at a stack of 80 boxes and someone added another on top it might feel subjectively like the tower was extended by less of an amount than if it was the 3rd box being added.
- wizofaus 4y ago
  Our brains typically do judge based on relative change even when it doesn't make a lot of sense - I.e. we'll put more effort trying to save ~$1 on something less than $10 than trying to save $2 or $3 on something that's $100, or $10 on something that's over $1000. The former "feels" like a more significant saving - but a $1 is $1 either way. You can post-rationalise it by saying "but I buy $10 things more often than I do $1000 things", but do you really do 100 times as often?
canjobear 4y ago
That's not an explanation, because it only makes sense under the unmotivated assumption that the brain measures subjective time as a proportion of lifetime. The brain has no reason to do this.
- mlyle 4y ago
  I believe it's a partial explanation. Waiting a day doesn't feel nearly as long when you've already waited 18,000. The experiences of even a novel day have less weight if you have hundreds of similarly novel days to compare against.
  - solarmist 4y ago
    Veritasium has a much better explanation. Our internal clocks actually slow down as we age. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIx2N-viNwY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIx2N-viNwY
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- gnramires 4y ago
  The brain "searches" through its memory space to find relevant information (dangers, opportunities, rewards). If we define the perception of time passing through novelty, then there's less novelty the more experiences you have. I think that's an interesting model (if not perfectly accurate). Likewise, the accumulation of relevant experiences might make time seem to actually pass slower, because you're making more connections at each moment and (arguably, might be false) have a more coherent and active brain -- but if there's less novelty worth remembering, it may appear in retrospect (when you examine your memory) that less (perceptual) time has elapsed for the same wallclock time. So I think this suggests two kinds of time: instantaneous perceptive time (how much your cognition is active -- for example, it may be near zero during anesthesia) and comparative memory time (how much you judge time intervals from your memory of events). One interesting example is perhaps when we've had an exciting week and it both seems that a month has elapsed in that week (since so much has happened), and that "time passed so quickly!". The former is explained by comparative memory time; maybe the latter is explained by us simply not thinking about the passage of time at all, and "skipping our clocks" (like forgetting to increment a clock or calendar). This is of course mostly speculation.
solarmist 4y ago
Veritasium has a much better explanation. Our internal clocks actually slow down as we age. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIx2N-viNwY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIx2N-viNwY
baja_blast 4y ago
Also how we perceive time largely depends on how novel and new the experience was. I just got back from an Indian wedding that lasted two days, but felt like a week of time had past since I was experiencing so many new things for the first time.

AlecSchueler 4y ago

Though if I make a stack of boxes the same size the 80th box will be a smaller proportion of the whole stack as is than the 4th box was, yet the individual boxes feel the same size. Edit: In saying that, if I was looking up at a stack of 80 boxes and someone added another on top it might feel subjectively like the tower was extended by less of an amount than if it was the 3rd box being added.

wizofaus 4y ago
Our brains typically do judge based on relative change even when it doesn't make a lot of sense - I.e. we'll put more effort trying to save ~$1 on something less than $10 than trying to save $2 or $3 on something that's $100, or $10 on something that's over $1000. The former "feels" like a more significant saving - but a $1 is $1 either way. You can post-rationalise it by saying "but I buy $10 things more often than I do $1000 things", but do you really do 100 times as often?

canjobear 4y ago

That's not an explanation, because it only makes sense under the unmotivated assumption that the brain measures subjective time as a proportion of lifetime. The brain has no reason to do this.

mlyle 4y ago
I believe it's a partial explanation. Waiting a day doesn't feel nearly as long when you've already waited 18,000. The experiences of even a novel day have less weight if you have hundreds of similarly novel days to compare against.
- solarmist 4y ago
  Veritasium has a much better explanation. Our internal clocks actually slow down as we age. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIx2N-viNwY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIx2N-viNwY
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
gnramires 4y ago
The brain "searches" through its memory space to find relevant information (dangers, opportunities, rewards). If we define the perception of time passing through novelty, then there's less novelty the more experiences you have. I think that's an interesting model (if not perfectly accurate). Likewise, the accumulation of relevant experiences might make time seem to actually pass slower, because you're making more connections at each moment and (arguably, might be false) have a more coherent and active brain -- but if there's less novelty worth remembering, it may appear in retrospect (when you examine your memory) that less (perceptual) time has elapsed for the same wallclock time. So I think this suggests two kinds of time: instantaneous perceptive time (how much your cognition is active -- for example, it may be near zero during anesthesia) and comparative memory time (how much you judge time intervals from your memory of events). One interesting example is perhaps when we've had an exciting week and it both seems that a month has elapsed in that week (since so much has happened), and that "time passed so quickly!". The former is explained by comparative memory time; maybe the latter is explained by us simply not thinking about the passage of time at all, and "skipping our clocks" (like forgetting to increment a clock or calendar). This is of course mostly speculation.

solarmist 4y ago

Veritasium has a much better explanation. Our internal clocks actually slow down as we age. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIx2N-viNwY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIx2N-viNwY

baja_blast 4y ago

Also how we perceive time largely depends on how novel and new the experience was. I just got back from an Indian wedding that lasted two days, but felt like a week of time had past since I was experiencing so many new things for the first time.