Page 56 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

P. 56

time, conceptions of 1833

Time ﬂies, as he ﬂies, adds increase to her truth, And gives to her mind what he
steals from her youth. • Michael Eyquen de Montaigne (1533–1592)

only reﬁned through the nineteenth and twentieth rate at which we can experience the subjective passage of
centuries. time—remains elusive. It is also particularly ironic that
these new insights come at a time when for many life is
Personal Time increasingly separated from natural cycles: For example,
In the late nineteenth century, researchers began trying to shift work, twenty-four-hour shopping, and even air-
understand the biological processes that embody our per- conditioning or electric lighting all blur our link to envi-
sonal consciousness of time. Great progress has been ronmental time.
made in characterizing human biological cycles, includ-
ing the well-known circadian rhythms that have a period The Future
of approximately one day, and using this knowledge to The rate of improvement in our ever-advancing ability to
advantage; for example, the effectiveness of drug treat- measure time is roughly exponential.The day is the same
ments can vary signiﬁcantly with the time of day. Cellu- length now as it ever was (at least, to a very good approx-
lar and physiological processes that underpin a multitude imation), but accelerating social change makes time seem
of personal “clocks” are yielding their secrets, including in shorter supply and consequently much more precious.
mechanisms for synchronizing body functions with the Many authors argue that a kind of liberation from slav-
environment (a built-in clock) and a separate interval ery to clock time is needed, repeating a challenge heard
timer for estimating elapsed duration (a built-in stop- as early as Roman times and which has frequently
watch). Neurological research can identify the areas of the recurred through history and literature since then.
brain that are important for human memory, whereby Clocks underpin much of our modern infrastructure,
both the time stamp attached to a speciﬁc event and the from telecommunications to electricity distribution to
chronological sequence based on these time stamps can electronic trading to satellite navigation. We take for
be stored and retrieved. granted a technical mastery over time, yet time is ulti-
Nevertheless, a real understanding of human time mately as much of a mystery as ever. As sociologist
consciousness—particularly the great variation in the Michael Young put it, “We can delude ourselves that we
know what time is because we know what time it is”
(245). The future of time itself will surely yield as much
color and change as has its past.
Bruce Warrington