• Registered: 2004-08-19

Topic: Subjective time experience

Whenever I look at a digital clock that includes second, the first second seems to last much longer than the ones following, up to twice as long. This only happens when I look at the clock when I want to know the time, it does not reoccur when I just look to see if the first second is extra long. From my perspective it can seem as if time was frozen until I looked at it, and then it needed some "time" (no pun intended) to "start up" to it's normal speed of 1 second per second.

I was wondering wether other people also experienced oddities with clocks and their own perception of time, and wether they had ideas on how this fits into the concepts of alternate realities, manipulations in reality, etc.

  • lyra
  • lyra
  • Naked Emperor Pointer Outer
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  • From: my own private idaho
  • Registered: 2004-03-25

Re: Subjective time experience

big_smile big_smile  Yes!!!   Aprogas, I chuckled when I read this, because indeed I've had this happen.   I thought it was just me imagining things....glad to see at least one other person has experienced this phenomenon.   smile

"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shit ... what a ride!"  - Anonymous
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"I get by with a little help from my (higher density) friends."
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  • montalk
  • montalk
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  • Registered: 2004-03-24

Re: Subjective time experience

Interesting, yeah I get this from time to time (no pun intended) but never actually brought it up in conversation with anyone because it's one of those things that gets put away in the back of my mind once it's over.   Could it be a purely psychological phenomenon? Could it be something more? I'm not sure, I can think of reasons supporting either case. Does reality become amorphous when you're not looking at it, and is there sometimes a glitch where there's a slight pause before it kicks back into motion the moment you look? Or do we catch the second hand just after it switched, with the mind filling in the assumption it was stationary all along and then starts into motion? Or something else... reminds me of the various oddities everyone in Dark City experienced but never questioned (like the fact that the sun never came out or no one remembered the way to Shell Beach).

Acquiring fringe knowledge is like digging for diamonds in a mine field.

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  • Haven
  • Haven
  • bull in a china shop
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  • Registered: 2004-11-24

Re: Subjective time experience

I think the amount of attention one is paying, the amount one is absorbing new information without the crutch of a discernable pattern (sort of like jumping into the middle of something and getting your bearings), determines the perception of time.  For me, moments in movies seem to last a reaaally long time, but, when I watch them the second time, those moments are suprisingly short.  Looking at a clock and not knowing when the second started would be along the same lines, when your mind is at a higher level of functioning, when it is trying to discern just when the second started and when it will end with no clues.

* When we start identifying wisdom with our ability to comprehend its form, what wisdom is that?
* Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
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