On Time
The idea of time was invented by ancient peoples to be able to mark occurrences of events so that future events could be predicted. A little bit later, the concept of history, which is looking back at past events and time markings grew out of people studying previously made marks. But time is really just an illusion as the universe has no clock. Like all convincing illusions, you cant really tell it is one until youre able to look around it from multiple angles. And in todays world, if one has the inclination to stop and look at chronological events of the past and compare them with today.
When time was first invented, people had need of measuring long events and some small ones as well. In this sense, long can be defined as an amount greater than a day and short can be thought of as a day or less. Everything was based on weather and the movements of celestial bodies in the sky, especially the sun to a great degree and the moon to a lesser degree. The seasons, which in most parts of the world last about two to four months, needed to be tracked for food gathering/hunting purposes while solar revolutions (days) were tracked simply because they could be easily tracked. Parts of the day, namely daytime and nighttime, also needed to be tracked for safety reasons as people dont see well in the dark unlike some animals and thus are at their most vulnerable at night where they would huddle together for safety, warmth and rest.
Although not all peoples created or adopted the concept of time, by the natural rules of evolution, the peoples that did had a huge advantage over those that didnt, especially when it came to tracking the seasons for food. Those who didnt became nomadic, constantly wandering in search of sustenance and thus could never settle down to form a power base. Such weak societies were vulnerable to those societies that were settled. Tracking seasons eventually leads to the concept of farming and animal husbandry. And the societies who could control and make efficient these concepts not only could spend less time looking for food, they could also feed people who specialized in other areas and spent no time looking for food. Thus began the concept of standing armies.
Back in ancient times, the increments of time that people used were much larger compared to now. As people formed civilized societies and thus began to trade with each other and later with other societies, the need for smaller increments of time arose as people needed more specific times in order to meet with each other. While people still tracked seasons, the need for months and hours came about in order to better dissect seasons and days into more specific units. That way, people who wanted to meet to exchange goods for goods (and later money) could do so efficiently. Many times, when trading certain perishable goods needed to be traded and used up before they went bad, getting meeting times exact was extremely important. And often people with goods to trade had to meet with multiple trading partners so keeping schedules became necessary. This process has continued to refine itself on through the centuries.
Roll forward a few millennia and as more and more time passes, people have begun to track time in smaller and smaller increments. Nowadays, a fraction of a second can make a huge difference in peoples fortunes. The illusion that time is has become quite apparent when we compare it to time of ancient peoples. Back then, thousands of years ago, a person might get five to ten things done in a single day. If an ancient person was waiting for something to happen by a certain time and that event occurred half an hour late or early, the person probably wouldnt notice (especially before the invention of portable watches). In fact, as long as there were not perceivable changes in the environment, especially the luminosity of sunlight, it was all considered close enough time-wise. Now, if our computer responds .9 seconds later than were used to when we try to click on something on the screen, its a big deal because something must be wrong.
Thus since events (actually, perceivable events) have sped up, time has actually sped up relatively speaking because there are more events occurring and people are able to perceive more. And more importantly, people are able to accomplish much more in the same unit of time than they were ten thousand years ago. We have events like the movie release Im going to for AVATAR on the 18th that will happen exactly at midnight. If Kobe Bryant makes the last shot in game 7 of the NBA Finals for the Lakers with 0.1 seconds left on the clock, every one on the Lakers is now a champion and then every fan around the world along with most people in the city of Los Angeles and neighboring counties celebrate. If he fails, the same is true everyone on the other team. The movement of hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe even billions eventually, will be swayed. A person crossing the street, if they are there one second on time, its just a routine street crossing. One second longer, its a near miss. Two seconds too long and hes a pancake, a statistic. Its insane to think about just how much can be done in one day by a modern person with all of the technology at hand.
In fact, all of this time maximization is made possible by technology. Technology is any concept (not necessarily hardware) where the goal is to save time, granting possibilities and options where there were none before. This can include mental technologies (such as banking) to what most people consider technology such as using plastic as a piping material rather than metal, which corrodes and is more expensive. What spurs technology to advance is economics, especially systems based on the free market. While consumers favor technology that gives more them more capabilities and saves them a bit of time, suppliers really push for better technology to increase efficiency and thus potential profits. Therefore its no wonder that the countries with the most freedom in business are the ones that are also the most dominant in technology.
But why is any of this important?
The free time that people can have by participating in a technological and efficient society gives them more opportunities to learn about and explore the more enlightened concepts in life. It also gives more time to create. There is no philosophy, no art, no advanced medicine, no weapons of dtente, no concepts of culture, no documentation of history or anything else that makes humans more advanced than the other animals. Humans are the only species on this planet that have the capability to save the planet in some way by limiting the destructive power of some natural disaster. Even thousands of years ago according to several religious books, this concept already existed in the form of Noahs Ark. And we already have reached out beyond our planet, possibly spreading life to others in the future. It becomes more and more likely as time passes because time keeps speeding up while our lifetimes keep getting longer. A single person now can accomplish in one lifetime what would have taken thousands. Imagine if you needed to communicate with someone in a foreign country something important. Before you would physically have to travel there by foot or water, which would take weeks, maybe even months and the journey could be perilous. Now, you just dial their cell phone, send them an email and IM them. The emails I send in one day would have taken an ancient person all their life to have personally delivered.
As for me, the illusion of time has recently become very apparent to me and Ive thought about it quite often the especially the last couple of years. This introspective thinking is what inspired this long-ass journal entry. (sorry!) For me, time has become a bit of a paradoxical situation. My body keeps aging and as a student of many things in life, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes involuntarily (aka, learning things the hard way), Im getting older and for now, Ive expanded my knowledge to an amount that even impresses meand Im the guy who should be well used to how much Ive experienced. And thats one half of me, rational side that governs most of my moment-to-moment decisions. But on the other hand my emotional side, my heart, its development is suspended in time. Ive never have been a ladies man type of guy and Ive always been terribly shy. Its been a lifelong labor to fix this problem and maybe Ive even overcompensated for this in my real life personality! My acquaintance-level friends never believe me when I tell them that Im terribly shy. My close ones sometimes notice as Im often very silent when there are more than two other people at the dinner table. It personally takes a lot of concentration for me to maintain myself in front of others and not just go off and hide. When I get tired or mentally exhausted though, my shyness completely manifests itself and reminds me that its still there as I cant maintain eye contact with anyone, even the closest of friends. I just look down. Often times all of this shy behavior has been misinterpreted as aloofness or even hostility. And it really doesnt help that I am a bit aloof and hostile by nature too!
The reason for my hearts suspension is due to my shy nature, Im very vulnerable to certain people and situations. I do not fall for people easily. In fact most people really bug me with how lazy and lacking they are in honor. And as a collector-type of personality (I have huge collections of DVDs, CDs, books, trading cards, whatever pricks my nostalgia) I have a great appreciation for rare things. When I do find the rare someone who is both physically attractive (not so rare) AND has the very rare personality, I fall. Hard. And on top of that, since my shyness prevents me from meeting many people and my abrasive n00b person skills turns a lot of them off right away, I really have a tendency to appreciate that rare person who really and completely turns me on. But because I have this tendency to put so much weight into one person (I am the definition of a person who only plays for keeps when it comes to matters of the heart), my heart was broken really badly by someone with a very insidiously dangerous personality (dangerous to my particular mindset). This person broke my heart several times and that saga would be a several-part journal in itself. This took place when I was the age of 16 to about 23-ish from when I was a senior in high school to my last years in college. It was a LONG time to be love sick. After this period, I vowed to never again let someone in to my heart like that again. And since she was the only one I ever got serious about, my emotional development stops right around that age. I walked away feeling rejected, uncomfortable with women, totally undesirable and extremely scared (of others and of myself)...not to mention quite angry as none of it needed to happen. (In a nutshell, the main problem with the relationship was that we were supposed to be friends yet she constantly flirted with me when we were together with no real intentions, even though I let her know my feelings for her very early on.) Basically in many ways I was a hermit.
Fast forward to about a year and a half ago. I met someone who, although I dont find attractive now, made me feel like I was not only desirable but also gave me a secure feeling that I could be around someone all of the time and feel comfortable with her and myself. Its a girl at work, making things even trickier. Yet I find myself in this situation where physically Im an older guy now, 36 years of age, yet Im only attracted to girls no older than 30but I favor those younger than 27. Its not because Im trying to rob the cradle or something for someone young and hot; its because I subconsciously want someone who I feel I can relate to more on an emotional level while leveraging my worldly experience in other stuff. In fact, most girls in their early 20s have more emotional experience than Ive had. Plus when I was growing up, I was a complete and unapologetic geek. My friend and I read and sold comic books. Now we have a shop (actually two now). I loved sci-fi, Transformers, Star Wars and Star Trek, basically any stuff kids would find interesting. I find that the newer generation now produces way more geeks and its a wonderful thing. And the population of geeky girls has increased even more dramatically. That first girl I fell for? She was an extremely pretty comic book collectorshe was my kryptonite.
So thats my dichotomy. I have worldly experience far beyond most people my age due to my job experience, my intelligence (Im a MENSA and my IQ has been measured into the 170+ range) and my long-standing studentship in the geek kingdom. But relationship-wise, I have as much experience and mojo as a normal 16 to 20 year old. (Luckily I still have the sex drive of a 20 year oldthank goodness I dont still have one of a 16 year old though!) The illusion of time really stands out to me when I examine this paradox. It may be my undoing too when it comes to any future chance of a real and sustaining relationship. It would be really easy to find another single Chinese girl of my age to date. I get messages all of the time from ladies like this on the online dating sites that Ive been a member of since I stopped dating that girl at work. Its been a totally fruitless search because Im just too eclectic, too eccentric and, facing reality here, I need a girl who is a total perv just like me. After a while, I figured out the only two places I would be able to find openly pervy girls was SG and another site that isnt so easy to communicate on. And in the meantime, Im constantly thinking of ways to start some sort of landmark business to help a lot of people while making me financially independent. I need that financial independence so that one day, if I do find that special someone who will accept me, Ill know that can take care of her.
- R
The idea of time was invented by ancient peoples to be able to mark occurrences of events so that future events could be predicted. A little bit later, the concept of history, which is looking back at past events and time markings grew out of people studying previously made marks. But time is really just an illusion as the universe has no clock. Like all convincing illusions, you cant really tell it is one until youre able to look around it from multiple angles. And in todays world, if one has the inclination to stop and look at chronological events of the past and compare them with today.
When time was first invented, people had need of measuring long events and some small ones as well. In this sense, long can be defined as an amount greater than a day and short can be thought of as a day or less. Everything was based on weather and the movements of celestial bodies in the sky, especially the sun to a great degree and the moon to a lesser degree. The seasons, which in most parts of the world last about two to four months, needed to be tracked for food gathering/hunting purposes while solar revolutions (days) were tracked simply because they could be easily tracked. Parts of the day, namely daytime and nighttime, also needed to be tracked for safety reasons as people dont see well in the dark unlike some animals and thus are at their most vulnerable at night where they would huddle together for safety, warmth and rest.
Although not all peoples created or adopted the concept of time, by the natural rules of evolution, the peoples that did had a huge advantage over those that didnt, especially when it came to tracking the seasons for food. Those who didnt became nomadic, constantly wandering in search of sustenance and thus could never settle down to form a power base. Such weak societies were vulnerable to those societies that were settled. Tracking seasons eventually leads to the concept of farming and animal husbandry. And the societies who could control and make efficient these concepts not only could spend less time looking for food, they could also feed people who specialized in other areas and spent no time looking for food. Thus began the concept of standing armies.
Back in ancient times, the increments of time that people used were much larger compared to now. As people formed civilized societies and thus began to trade with each other and later with other societies, the need for smaller increments of time arose as people needed more specific times in order to meet with each other. While people still tracked seasons, the need for months and hours came about in order to better dissect seasons and days into more specific units. That way, people who wanted to meet to exchange goods for goods (and later money) could do so efficiently. Many times, when trading certain perishable goods needed to be traded and used up before they went bad, getting meeting times exact was extremely important. And often people with goods to trade had to meet with multiple trading partners so keeping schedules became necessary. This process has continued to refine itself on through the centuries.
Roll forward a few millennia and as more and more time passes, people have begun to track time in smaller and smaller increments. Nowadays, a fraction of a second can make a huge difference in peoples fortunes. The illusion that time is has become quite apparent when we compare it to time of ancient peoples. Back then, thousands of years ago, a person might get five to ten things done in a single day. If an ancient person was waiting for something to happen by a certain time and that event occurred half an hour late or early, the person probably wouldnt notice (especially before the invention of portable watches). In fact, as long as there were not perceivable changes in the environment, especially the luminosity of sunlight, it was all considered close enough time-wise. Now, if our computer responds .9 seconds later than were used to when we try to click on something on the screen, its a big deal because something must be wrong.
Thus since events (actually, perceivable events) have sped up, time has actually sped up relatively speaking because there are more events occurring and people are able to perceive more. And more importantly, people are able to accomplish much more in the same unit of time than they were ten thousand years ago. We have events like the movie release Im going to for AVATAR on the 18th that will happen exactly at midnight. If Kobe Bryant makes the last shot in game 7 of the NBA Finals for the Lakers with 0.1 seconds left on the clock, every one on the Lakers is now a champion and then every fan around the world along with most people in the city of Los Angeles and neighboring counties celebrate. If he fails, the same is true everyone on the other team. The movement of hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe even billions eventually, will be swayed. A person crossing the street, if they are there one second on time, its just a routine street crossing. One second longer, its a near miss. Two seconds too long and hes a pancake, a statistic. Its insane to think about just how much can be done in one day by a modern person with all of the technology at hand.
In fact, all of this time maximization is made possible by technology. Technology is any concept (not necessarily hardware) where the goal is to save time, granting possibilities and options where there were none before. This can include mental technologies (such as banking) to what most people consider technology such as using plastic as a piping material rather than metal, which corrodes and is more expensive. What spurs technology to advance is economics, especially systems based on the free market. While consumers favor technology that gives more them more capabilities and saves them a bit of time, suppliers really push for better technology to increase efficiency and thus potential profits. Therefore its no wonder that the countries with the most freedom in business are the ones that are also the most dominant in technology.
But why is any of this important?
The free time that people can have by participating in a technological and efficient society gives them more opportunities to learn about and explore the more enlightened concepts in life. It also gives more time to create. There is no philosophy, no art, no advanced medicine, no weapons of dtente, no concepts of culture, no documentation of history or anything else that makes humans more advanced than the other animals. Humans are the only species on this planet that have the capability to save the planet in some way by limiting the destructive power of some natural disaster. Even thousands of years ago according to several religious books, this concept already existed in the form of Noahs Ark. And we already have reached out beyond our planet, possibly spreading life to others in the future. It becomes more and more likely as time passes because time keeps speeding up while our lifetimes keep getting longer. A single person now can accomplish in one lifetime what would have taken thousands. Imagine if you needed to communicate with someone in a foreign country something important. Before you would physically have to travel there by foot or water, which would take weeks, maybe even months and the journey could be perilous. Now, you just dial their cell phone, send them an email and IM them. The emails I send in one day would have taken an ancient person all their life to have personally delivered.
As for me, the illusion of time has recently become very apparent to me and Ive thought about it quite often the especially the last couple of years. This introspective thinking is what inspired this long-ass journal entry. (sorry!) For me, time has become a bit of a paradoxical situation. My body keeps aging and as a student of many things in life, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes involuntarily (aka, learning things the hard way), Im getting older and for now, Ive expanded my knowledge to an amount that even impresses meand Im the guy who should be well used to how much Ive experienced. And thats one half of me, rational side that governs most of my moment-to-moment decisions. But on the other hand my emotional side, my heart, its development is suspended in time. Ive never have been a ladies man type of guy and Ive always been terribly shy. Its been a lifelong labor to fix this problem and maybe Ive even overcompensated for this in my real life personality! My acquaintance-level friends never believe me when I tell them that Im terribly shy. My close ones sometimes notice as Im often very silent when there are more than two other people at the dinner table. It personally takes a lot of concentration for me to maintain myself in front of others and not just go off and hide. When I get tired or mentally exhausted though, my shyness completely manifests itself and reminds me that its still there as I cant maintain eye contact with anyone, even the closest of friends. I just look down. Often times all of this shy behavior has been misinterpreted as aloofness or even hostility. And it really doesnt help that I am a bit aloof and hostile by nature too!
The reason for my hearts suspension is due to my shy nature, Im very vulnerable to certain people and situations. I do not fall for people easily. In fact most people really bug me with how lazy and lacking they are in honor. And as a collector-type of personality (I have huge collections of DVDs, CDs, books, trading cards, whatever pricks my nostalgia) I have a great appreciation for rare things. When I do find the rare someone who is both physically attractive (not so rare) AND has the very rare personality, I fall. Hard. And on top of that, since my shyness prevents me from meeting many people and my abrasive n00b person skills turns a lot of them off right away, I really have a tendency to appreciate that rare person who really and completely turns me on. But because I have this tendency to put so much weight into one person (I am the definition of a person who only plays for keeps when it comes to matters of the heart), my heart was broken really badly by someone with a very insidiously dangerous personality (dangerous to my particular mindset). This person broke my heart several times and that saga would be a several-part journal in itself. This took place when I was the age of 16 to about 23-ish from when I was a senior in high school to my last years in college. It was a LONG time to be love sick. After this period, I vowed to never again let someone in to my heart like that again. And since she was the only one I ever got serious about, my emotional development stops right around that age. I walked away feeling rejected, uncomfortable with women, totally undesirable and extremely scared (of others and of myself)...not to mention quite angry as none of it needed to happen. (In a nutshell, the main problem with the relationship was that we were supposed to be friends yet she constantly flirted with me when we were together with no real intentions, even though I let her know my feelings for her very early on.) Basically in many ways I was a hermit.
Fast forward to about a year and a half ago. I met someone who, although I dont find attractive now, made me feel like I was not only desirable but also gave me a secure feeling that I could be around someone all of the time and feel comfortable with her and myself. Its a girl at work, making things even trickier. Yet I find myself in this situation where physically Im an older guy now, 36 years of age, yet Im only attracted to girls no older than 30but I favor those younger than 27. Its not because Im trying to rob the cradle or something for someone young and hot; its because I subconsciously want someone who I feel I can relate to more on an emotional level while leveraging my worldly experience in other stuff. In fact, most girls in their early 20s have more emotional experience than Ive had. Plus when I was growing up, I was a complete and unapologetic geek. My friend and I read and sold comic books. Now we have a shop (actually two now). I loved sci-fi, Transformers, Star Wars and Star Trek, basically any stuff kids would find interesting. I find that the newer generation now produces way more geeks and its a wonderful thing. And the population of geeky girls has increased even more dramatically. That first girl I fell for? She was an extremely pretty comic book collectorshe was my kryptonite.
So thats my dichotomy. I have worldly experience far beyond most people my age due to my job experience, my intelligence (Im a MENSA and my IQ has been measured into the 170+ range) and my long-standing studentship in the geek kingdom. But relationship-wise, I have as much experience and mojo as a normal 16 to 20 year old. (Luckily I still have the sex drive of a 20 year oldthank goodness I dont still have one of a 16 year old though!) The illusion of time really stands out to me when I examine this paradox. It may be my undoing too when it comes to any future chance of a real and sustaining relationship. It would be really easy to find another single Chinese girl of my age to date. I get messages all of the time from ladies like this on the online dating sites that Ive been a member of since I stopped dating that girl at work. Its been a totally fruitless search because Im just too eclectic, too eccentric and, facing reality here, I need a girl who is a total perv just like me. After a while, I figured out the only two places I would be able to find openly pervy girls was SG and another site that isnt so easy to communicate on. And in the meantime, Im constantly thinking of ways to start some sort of landmark business to help a lot of people while making me financially independent. I need that financial independence so that one day, if I do find that special someone who will accept me, Ill know that can take care of her.
- R
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
AND -- about the whole -- it's good when they fly off the handle this way, because you get that glimpse? Yes, exactly. Man, what a relief. I mean, he did it a few times prior, and I took big, huge, whopping steps back anyway. But this just seals the deal. Before, he just showed me he was looney toons. But this time, I can see he's also as much of a Grade A asshole as he can be .. with what little intellect he's got.