The Logarithmic Perception of Time: How Childhood Dominates Our Subjective Life Experience
By
moultano
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Summary
The article explores the subjective experience of time across different life stages, proposing that we perceive time logarithmically rather than linearly. It examines how childhood occupies a disproportionately large portion of our subjective life experience, with a year feeling much longer to a 5-year-old than to a 40-year-old. The piece considers the philosophical implications of this model, particularly how recognizing that childhood constitutes half of our subjective life should influence how we live and value different life stages.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledFor a 5 year old, a year was a fifth of their life, and feels like it. For a 40 year old, it is just another year.
If you take this model literally, that your experience of an interval reflects what fraction of your life the interval is, then we experience time logarithmically through our lives.
Instead of middle age coming at 40 as linear time would suggest, in logarithmic time the midpoint of age 5 and age...
If childhood is half of our subjective life, how should that change how we live?
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