The Arrow of Time

But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool;
And time, that takes survey of all the world,
Must have a stop.                        - Shakespeare, Henry IV

Statements like 'Time flies' and 'Time and tide wait for no man' indicate the inevitable passing of time. But it is actually quite difficult to define what time is. Whether it is part of the basic structure of the universe or an artificial construct of the mind is a matter of debate among philosophers and scientists. Time is not a thing perceivable by our senses though we do recognize the passage of time. It is true that time passes automatically, but we have to be made aware of its passing. If not, what does it matter how it passes? How could the idea of time come about without our being aware of it? Wouldn't we just have 'now' and no yesterdays or tomorrows?

Leaving philosophical questions aside, our experience of time is a curious thing. For instance, when I wake up from a deep sleep, I have no idea of how much time has passed. I have to look at the clock to find out how long I have slept. Strangely, even when I am totally engrossed in something very interesting, I lose track of time. Until my attention moves away from whatever I am doing, whether sleeping or fully focused on something, I do not note the passage of time. Conversely, if I am not doing anything of interest, I am constantly checking the clock to see how much time has passed. When I am thus conscious of the passage of time (which really means I am not doing anything), it seems to be passing very slowly indeed. Time seems to hang in my hands. In fact, I am passing time by watching it pass! Or to use a common phrase, I am just killing time. But can we really kill time? Isn't it just the other way around?

We measure many things against time. This means that we also need to measure time. We rely on man-made instruments to measure time precisely since we cannot keep track of it otherwise. We have all seen spy movies where people synchronize their watches while engaging in a mission because the timing of various actions is critical. For example, in 'A Shot in the Dark', Inspector Clouseau tells his assistant to turn off the main switch in exactly five minutes in one scene. When they try to synchronize their watches they discover that the assistant's watch has stopped working. The poor fellow is then left to count three hundred seconds before throwing the switch.

We often talk of the arrow of time, but the arrow of time does not seem to travel in a straight line most of the time. When I am listening to a terribly boring lecture, it moves slowly in a wave-like fashion. Anyway, that is how I see it.

When I am fully absorbed in some activity, it seems to be jumping from point to point (maybe in a straight line, who knows). I am only aware of the start and end times.

Then there are times when I think time takes a short cut and goes through a sort of wormhole. For example, in the mornings, reluctant to get up, I barely shut my eyes for a minute, but some forty-five minutes have passed when I open them again. From all this, you can see that the mind has its own concept of how fast or slow time should pass! Time does seem to be a construct of the human mind after all.

When we dream, something strange happens to time. The dream time moves much faster relative to time in the waking state. We can go though years of dream time in a matter of minutes. We can readily see from this that time is not absolute. How does time flow in a dream? Who makes it all happen? It is awe-inspiring to think that my mind can create the whole dream universe - space, time and all. I wonder if, in our waking state too, time is created by the mind, perhaps a super-mind.

Since the passage of time is not experienced uniformly by everyone, we need clocks to synchronize time. We have become slaves to time and we dance to the schedule dictated by the clock. We get up at a certain time and go to work or to any appointment based on the agreed clock. The more organized we are, the more the level of slavery. I have seen folks waiting for a bus on a country road for an hour or more without a trace of impatience. If I asked them when the next bus was coming and they would just say 'In a little while', which could be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half! But in big towns the story is very different. There is a mad rush for everything and waiting is unacceptable.

Everyone wants to save time, but few seem to know how to utilize it wisely. Here’s a story I read long back that may illustrate my point. A man started to get into a local subway train in New York, when his companion pointed out that they could save twenty minutes by taking an express and so they took the express. When they got off at Central Park, upon coming out of the station, he proceeded to sit on a park bench. When asked what he was doing, he replied, “Since we have saved twenty minutes, I think we can enjoy that time here in the park”.