Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

sitn.hms.harvard.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 167 posts

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#71

Post by motohagiography »

dang wrote: post #61
yosito wrote: post #9

This is a completely vapid article. The headline implies an answer. This short article starts with "nobody knows" and ends with "one guy's random idea is...".

Normally we downweight articles like that off the front page, but the thread is surprisingly better.

OP here. The co-ordinates for why I posted it were, I was wondering whether time perception change is a thing, searched, recognized the author's name from some of his other work, coupled with the harvard source, and am interested in what others think about the topic.

The perception is pretty plausibly an information processing phenomenon, and there are mechanisms for that, so pro thinkers addressing it seemed interesting enough to share. If it brings down the level of discussion, I would of course apologize.

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#72

Post by [deleted] »

djmips wrote: post #6

Another hunch that I have is that as you get older you tend to have less unique experiences. I believe our brains compress the information and an entire day that was much like the previous day can just feel like it sped by quickly. Alternatively, if you go on vacation or change your routine then time will slow down as you process a lot of new information.

[deleted]

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#73

Post by hindsightbias »

Jensson wrote: post #11

Does it really? To me time speeds up when I am not doing new things. When I do new things time goes as slow now as it did 20 years ago. Just pull up your life by its roots and time slows down to a crawl, then as you get used to your new life it gradually speeds up towards infinity, so you just repeat this process to perceptually live longer.

If I told you had 48 hours to study for your Organic Chemistry final, would time slow down or speed up?

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#74

Post by dougmwne »

Just like people can have variations in inner voice or mental imagery, I wonder if different people perceive the flow of time differently. For me, I feel like I have a weak long term memory. Things from my childhood are pretty much gone and and it takes quite a lot of effort to recall things from even a few months ago. I also have no problem slowing down and having a fresh experience of a familiar thing. A few minutes sometimes can stretch out and feel like much longer. And when I do some very new, like go to a new country, I can have a childlike experience of each day stretching on and on and a month seeming like a year.

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#75

Post by NiceWayToDoIT »

Interesting view, I thought it happens as with computers, that your memory gets saturated with wast amount of things and emotions, so your CPU with age starts getting slower, and as it slows down as your brain does not work as fast as when we were young, we perceive time as it appear to pass faster.

But it seems according article my perception was wrong ...

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#76

Post by andyjohnson0 »

The paper referenced in the article seems to be at [1]. Its not in a scientific journal and had only has one author, who is a professor of mechanical engineering [2]. I'm not a neurologist or a professor of anything, but this all seems more like a pet a theory than something based on scientific evidence.

[1] https://doi.org/10.1017/S1062798718000741

[2] https://mems.duke.edu/faculty/adrian-bejan

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#78

Post by sva_ »

djmips wrote: post #6

Another hunch that I have is that as you get older you tend to have less unique experiences. I believe our brains compress the information and an entire day that was much like the previous day can just feel like it sped by quickly. Alternatively, if you go on vacation or change your routine then time will slow down as you process a lot of new information.

If in the first year of life, you have 100% new experiences, 2nd year, 50% new experiences, etc, and reach an age of around 80, you'll have made half your life's experiences by the age of 20.

I think in retrospect we perceive time through our memories, less so by our momentary experience. If your memories have little variance, you'll feel like time has passed quickly. So if you work some factory job for 40 years, you may feel like life passed by in a blink of a moment.

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#79

Post by ASalazarMX »

gmfawcett wrote: post #21
djmips wrote: post #6

Another hunch that I have is that as you get older you tend to have less unique experiences. I believe our brains compress the information and an entire day that was much like the previous day can just feel like it sped by quickly. Alternatively, if you go on vacation or change your routine then time will slow down as you process a lot of new information.

This is a much more compelling argument than the article's.

This is my impression as well. Old people who have settled in a routine can tell what year and month it is, but probably have a harder time telling the day or weekday. For them, all days are weekends.

You don't even need to be old to feel this. I've had vacations where I mostly played JRPGs, and those vacations certainly felt considerably shorter.

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#80

Post by Darmody »

djmips wrote: post #6

Another hunch that I have is that as you get older you tend to have less unique experiences. I believe our brains compress the information and an entire day that was much like the previous day can just feel like it sped by quickly. Alternatively, if you go on vacation or change your routine then time will slow down as you process a lot of new information.

And you usually are not excited for the next day but for the nexy payday. Zombies until the weekend or until we get paid.
Post reply on HN