The Limits of Living Chronologically

As humans, we experience life through the lens of time passing. It might be one of our biggest weaknesses.

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-Taylor

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Have you ever considered that the way we perceive time isn’t a given?

This isn’t a science newsletter, and I’m not a scientist. But bear with me while I go down a brief scientific/philosophical rabbit hole.

When it comes to our understanding of time, there are basically three schools of thought.

The first is called presentism, or the view that only the reality of the present actually exists. The past existed once, but doesn’t anymore. The future doesn’t exist yet, but it will once it becomes the present.

The second theory is called growing block universe theory. It suggests that the past exists, and the present exists, but the future doesn’t. Only things that are observable are real, and because the present is observable and evidence of the past is observable, they are real, while the future isn’t. But as time moves forward, and the past and present grow, what’s “real” also grows — which is why it’s called growing block universe theory.

The third theory, and the one most widely agreed upon among philosophers and scientists (though there’s not consensus by any means), is called eternalism. It’s the view that all existence in time is just as real as any other. The past, present, and future all exist and are equally real. They’re all there, somewhere in space-time. The only reason now feels more real to us is that we’re only capable of perceiving now.

Think of it like the visible light spectrum. We all know that the colors our eyes and brains can process represent just a small fraction of the colors that exist. Other animals with different eyes and brains can see more than we can, or less than we can, or just a different range than we can.

Eternalism is the idea that just because we can’t see the future doesn’t make it any less real.

The reason most scientists agree on this theory as opposed to the others is that it’s supported by Einstein’s theory of relativity, which allows for the view of space-time as a four dimensional “block” as opposed to a three-dimensional space that’s passing through time.

Okay, enough science.

Let’s get back to being human.

All that time theory up there is to say, basically: people live in the present. It’s the only place we’re capable of living.

Sure, we can think about the past and future — sometimes so much that it makes us miserable — but it doesn’t mean that’s where we are. I can think about Hawaii all I want, but it doesn’t mean I’m in Hawaii.

However, Hawaii still exists even if I’m not there.

What does it mean for us, the fact that we’re doomed to experience time one moment at a time? How does it limit us?

It turns out we already have names for those limitations.

Our failure to see the past is called forgetting.

Our failure to see the future is called myopia.

Even our two most widespread mood disorders — anxiety and depression — can be defined as extensions of our time weakness. Anxiety is our discomfort at being unable to change the past or know the future. Depression is our inability to imagine any positive future at all.

The better we understand the limitations of living in time, the better equipped we can be to overcome those weaknesses. To do that, we can imagine what we would be like if we didn’t have them. If we were four-dimensional beings — still ourselves, but freed from that one big weakness we all share: time. How would it change the way we think? Without forgetting or myopia, how would we live?

Let’s start with the weakness of forgetting.

For a long time, I was harshly anti-motivation. Self-help books, motivational speakers, inspirational quotes — what was the point? There’s nothing new in them, no genuine insight. It’s just a bunch of people telling us what we already know.

You can achieve anything if you work hard enough!

Being nice to people is good!

Life is better when you share it with people you love!

Exercise is hard but it makes you healthier!

This even led me to start minimizing the messages of philosophers and spiritual leaders. Why read the Bible again and again, or the Quran, or the words of Confucius or Aristotle— those messages and insights are thousands of years old. Certainly we’ve already internalized them or moved beyond them by now.

But this was a failure on my part — a failure to appreciate the human weakness of experiencing time.

People live in the moment, and so people forget.

When we have those powerful moments when we’re staring out at some beautiful view, and there are strangers enjoying that view with us, and we feel connected to all of humanity and all of nature and we realize it’s a glorious blessing just to be alive and part of the web of life — it’s an incredible, transformative experience.

Or maybe we hear an incredible speaker delivering a powerful message, or we read a transformative book, or we have a spiritual experience. In that moment, we feel as if nothing will ever be the same for us.

Then hours pass. And then days. We don’t forget the experience itself — we remember the view, the message, the experience. We even remember that we had a moment of transcendence, some powerful feeling of transformation. But we forget the feeling itself. Because we perceive time, things in the past are less real to us than things in the present. And if the present is frustrating, or dull, or unpleasant, we forget our moments of transcendence in the past.

That’s what inspiration is for, and that’s why we crave it. It’s a visceral, present reminder of what we know to be true but have forgotten.

The reason believers go to church once a week isn’t because they’re expecting startling new insights. It’s because we’re people, and we forget. We forget the things we know and we forget the things we feel.

So what would we be like if we didn’t forget? If the past was as present as the present?

We would never fail in our resolutions. That January 1st feeling of endless possibility would still be with us by January 2nd, and by July, and all the way through December.

We would be endlessly grateful for the people who have helped shape us. We wouldn’t neglect our parents once we’ve moved out of the house and gotten our own lives, because those moments when they cradled us after skinning a knee on the playground, the times when they shepherded us through the confusion of adolescence, they would all be as present to us as our grown-up independence.

We would never continue cycles of abuse, because we would remember the pain that abuse caused, the promises we made ourselves that we would never inflict that pain on someone else.

We would be kind to beginners, because we would always be beginners even when we’ve become experts.

As a society, we would never repeat the mistakes of history, because their impacts would be as real to us as if they were happening now.

If the past were as real to us as the present, all our most formative moments would constantly be with us, forever guiding us forward — rather than being forgotten. So as long as we’re limited by time, let’s embrace all the corny inspiration, our daily need for reminding and motivation, our embarrassing need to make mistakes and fix them and then make them all over again. Whatever it takes to make the past more real, we should welcome it all.

But what about the future? What would we be like if tomorrow were as real to us as today?

To consider that, we’re going to have to talk about God.

Now I’m asking you again to stick with me — just as this isn’t a science newsletter, it’s also not a religion newsletter. The idea I’m about to share is every bit as relevant to atheists as it is to believers.

I’m also going to speak from a very Western, Christian-centric understanding of God. Again, bear with me. I have a point to make, and it’s not that God wants you to be a Christian.

But there’s one thing that modern, Western believers in God tend to agree on: he knows everything, including what’s going to happen in the future.

Another point about God which believers generally agree on: he loves us unconditionally.

In the modern Christian context, God is generally seen as endlessly forgiving. No matter how much we’ve screwed things up, no matter how many times we blow it, he’s presented as never giving up on us, never getting mad or loving us less.

How is that possible? If you ask a Christian, they’ll tell you it’s because God is perfectly righteous. But they could just as accurately say it’s because He’s not limited by time.

To a God who sees the past, present, and future equally, the “you” ten years from now is as present and real as the “you” of right now. That means the best, most selfless, amazing thing you’ll ever do is every bit as real as the worst mistake you’ve ever made.

How could someone who sees us that way not love us unconditionally?

And how would seeing yourself this way change the way you think and behave?

You might be more forgiving when you make a mistake, because you would be able to look ahead and see the version of yourself that’s already overcome that mistake and become stronger for it.

You might be more willing to improve yourself without worrying about “losing” yourself, because you would instinctively recognize that a better version of yourself in the future is every bit as you as your current state.

You would live in awe of yourself, because your ultimate potential would be as real to you as your current imperfections.

But unfortunately, we’re only human. Just as we forget the past, we also forget the future. We can’t see it, and so we struggle to imagine ourselves there. But that you ten years or twenty years down the line isn’t hypothetical. She’s real. She’s just not in the room with you now.

That thought might make us more conscious of our decisions. We would take better care of ourselves. We would be more willing to sacrifice temporary comfort for lasting joy. We would endure necessary suffering more willingly, and we would cut out unnecessary misery more promptly.

If the future were as real to us as the present, we would see ourselves and the people we love as the best, most fully realized version.

This all basically amounts to a thought experiment. The fact is that we are limited to experience existence one moment at a time. We do forget the past and fail to see the future.

But every once in a while, it’s worth remembering that Past You and Future You are as real as Present You.

You should forgive Past You for his mistakes. You should aspire to and admire Future You for his accomplishments.

Meanwhile, you shouldn’t envy either of them for where they get to be. Don’t long for the past or pine for the future. They’re just other rooms in the big, four-dimensional, impossible-to-understand, block-shaped house that is your existence.

I hope this essay wasn’t just a big, metaphysical mess.

Thank you for your time.