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Time isn't real man

by Jodie themathgenius
20th May 2025
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This is a linkpost for https://jodie.website/#time
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Time isn't real man
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3Viliam
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[-]TAG3mo*1313

Anyone who’ s taken LSD, pulled an all-nighter, been bored, or fell into a YouTube rabbit knows that time is subjective.

All these show is that a subject's perception of time is subjective. As I expectted. Summarising that as "time (itself) is subjective" is classic motte-and-bailey.

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[-]Viliam3mo31

The problem is how to design pleasant experiences that expand subjective time. It seems to usually happen the other way round: pleasant moments feel short, unpleasant moments long.

I think it may require alternating various kind of pleasant experience. Don't watch a long movie, or play a long computer game. Instead, do many short, pleasant activities, so that your subjective perception of time flying fast will be balanced by the subjective perception of "so many different things happened today".

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"There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.''
― Arthur Conan Doyle

Anyone who' s taken LSD, pulled an all-nighter, been bored, or fell into a YouTube rabbit knows that time is subjective. Brains aren't clocks. They cheat constantly. Compressing
sequences of events, deleting traumatic evens, buffering sensory delays, stretching and compressing depending on how arousing whatever you're experiencing is.

Code Monks

Programmers enter multi-hour flow states without fatigue or hunger. Usually helped by autism headphones and chemical stimulants.

Bullet Time

When put in life-or-death situations, many report time slowing down. It's like the brain temporarily overclocks and hyper-saturates itself with sensory perception.

Teleportation

Notice how commuting to your job feels like a time skip? It's like mundane regular tasks simply don't exist to us.

Time Travel

When you travel, a few weeks turn into a whole-ass chapter of your life. A giant exotic memory palace. At the end you often feel like you're leaving an entire life behind.

Time Merchants

Video platforms optimize for smoothness and hyperstimulus. They make you forget where videos start and end.

Chronohacking

Time perception seems to me like a fertile ground for exploits. It's not just fun, it feels necessary in a world where attention is farmed and sold. There's only so much we can do to have a longer life, so why not try to make our life denser.