Why does time go by faster as people get older?

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jdbob
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16 Jun 2009, 3:16 am

"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." - Douglas Adams



DentArthurDent
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16 Jun 2009, 4:14 am

gbollard wrote:
At two years old, time is a long time... one year is half of your life.

By ten, it's only a tenth.

By fifty, it's one fiftieth (a pretty tiny bit).

Life speeds up because the timeslices become smaller in comparison to our overall experience.

(perhaps).


Spot on


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peterd
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16 Jun 2009, 4:22 am

Yeah, well. I'll go with Gavin's explanation too.

Except for that hour after lunch on Tuesday's, that seems to take about a week and a half. That hasn't gotten much easier as I've got older.

You know the feeling, every tick of the clock takes a year, there's no enthusiasm available and the dream of walking out and hitting the road is almost irresistible?

Well, perhaps it's just boredom... but old or young it still bites as deep.



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16 Jun 2009, 10:07 am

Sand wrote:
Creatures with nervous systems and memories function by reacting to their environment in established nervous system patterns. When we are young and inexperienced each encountered situation must be faced as an original experience and a reaction pattern must be invented to deal with it. This takes conscious time. Thus is established a menu of standardized patterns to deal with situations. It is the equivalent of computer macros where one complex reaction can be initiated by pressing a key devoted to a chain of reactions. As we grow older it is no longer necessary to be conscious of many complex reactions as a simple starter command will initiate an established unconscious pattern and the time necessary for this to take place is no longer noteworthy. As in learning to drive a car, initially each proper action to obtain a desired result must be thought out carefully and controlled. Once the nervous macros are established the complex chains of reactions are no longer conscious and the time span for their accomplishment is no longer noteworthy. They take time but the time required is not noted consciously and therefore the time "passes" much more quickly. I am over 80 years old and I have formulated multitudes of automatic reactions and all I have to do is initiate a desire and the reactions take place automatically. Unfortunately, like many people, I sometimes forget the initial link or motivation for setting up the automatic reaction and I find myself before an open refrigerator or closet or drawer wondering what the hell I am looking for. The time for setting up the chain reaction seemed to take place instantly and thus passed unconsciously and time has "sped up".


The Sand of time topic

Interesting analysis. A keeper.

And gbollard's answer was both algebraic and visual. Excellent.


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