In Relation to the World

The concept of time has been debated throughout history, even as far back as the years of Plato and Aristotle. The idea of whether or not time is linear has been argued in ideas like Zeno’s Arrow and the reversibility of time in modern-day physics Time is the organization of memory by which the brain creates a memory from a stimulus, processes the memory, and prepares for upcoming transductions.

In life, everything is organized. Doctors file things according to patients; schools file things according to students; the human brain files things according to memory. Time is just another system developed to help humans organize thoughts and ideas. Without time, one would not be able to differentiate one memory from another. Everything in life would be a chaotic blur. Time is an illusive concept that is used by humans to organize thoughts as they perceive the world around them.

Humans perceive the world through their senses: touch, taste, sound, sight, smell, and proprioception (the knowledge of where the body and the limbs are in space (Bihun)). One starts with no memory of what things are. As a child ages, he or she learns to associate between different sights, smells, tastes, etc. The child creates memories. The older a person gets, the more advanced the memories become. As more memories are created, time seems to go by faster as the body works harder to store more information. Transduction, according to psychology, is the conversion of physical energy to neural impulses (Bihun). The energy and events of the world are sensed then transduced to neural impulses in the brain, and those same neurons create memories.

The rotation of the Earth around the sun is just another way people create and organize their memories. The sun rises, the sun sets, and the night persists. This is the most common view of time. People associate certain memories with the time of day something occurs and the positioning of the sun. The position of the sun is directly related to sensory information. The darkness of the night causes the body to release melatonin, indicating when to sleep and to process memories (Bihun). Courts ask witnesses, defendants, and prosecutors when certain actions occurred in order to reach a verdict. Time of death is recorded and put into records. All of these actions help people to perceive the world and to organize their memoires in a logical fashion.

After a memory is created, the brain must process it. According to Myers, “Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events… and without conscious effort you automatically process information about space, time, and frequency” (Myers 227, 324-327). For example, a child who touches a hot stove learns through pain not to touch the stove again. This example demonstrates how, from a stimulus (touching a hot stove), a perception is made (the stove will cause pain when touched) and a memory is created (not to touch the stove again or it will hurt). The memory is then processed to recognize that when any stove is turned on, it will be hot, and one should not touch it.

However, some argue that the perceptions of an individual are irrelevant compared to the majority. Time itself might be irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but “time is dictated by situations and circumstances” (Bruss and Rüschendorf 361-370) of individuals. When in a car accident, time might appear to slow down to an individual, or according to the common saying, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” Situations that might seem to be meaningless are what make up the grander scheme of things. Without individuals and circumstances, there would be nothing for the majority to follow. The study of individuals is taught in history classes: George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, etc. Individuals are capable of influencing the perception of time just as equally as or more so than the majority.

The brain of every individual prepares for upcoming transductions with sleep. The book Psychology states that sleep is “for restoring and rebuilding our fading memories of the day’s experiences” (Myers 99-100). Without that time to restore body functions, the body cannot function and memories become opaque. The body loses some body functions. Many people, after staying awake for long periods of time, forget what day it is, how long they have been up, what things they have done. In its attempt to restore itself and preserve energy, the brain stops organizing the world and memories.

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In newer theories, time seems less organized and is capable of being reversed. Even the media, such as the Simpsons, have suggested time travel as a reality. Nobody has ever accomplished the reversal of time, so nobody knows if it is possible. In the journal, "On the Perception of Time.” Bruss and Rüschendorf state, “Time is irreversible because of the unpredictability of the future” (361-370). With no clear theories or solid evidence showing it can be done, the reversibility of time remains fiction.

If time is actually reversible, it would only be capable by altering one’s consciousness. There are already examples of this in patients of disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD.) Myers says, “Our memories exist in part to protect us in the future. So there is biological wisdom in not being able to forget our most emotional or traumatic experiences – our greatest embarrassments, our worst accidents, our most horrid experiences. But sometimes, for some of us, the unforgettable takes over our lives” (612-614). Patients with severe PTSD have been known to relive, “reverse,” into the past and re-experience trauma they have already been through. Some patients are known to feel physical sensation and sometimes, vividly re-witness, the past. Because the trauma has messed with their perceptions so much, the PTSD victim is incapable of adjusting to new perceptions and constantly “travels back” into the traumas they have already seen.

“A trajectory through spacetime is described by a sequence of OR (‘Conscious NOW’) events… Each OR event selects one curvature, following which superposition resumes. As each OR event is non-computable/non-algorithmic, it is irreversible with respect to classical information. Hence conscious perception of the classical world moves ‘forward.’” (Hameroff).

The diagram above shows how even through space, the conscious will always perceive a “now” (Hameroff). Each “OR” in the graph shows how through space, there is a moment in the conscious that is always perceived as the “now.” Each box shows how one action can lead to another depending upon our choices. Where there are arrows pointing to an empty space with no box continuing the sequence, the actions and future that might have been stops and is not perceived as the now. Each “now” continues on throughout seconds, minutes, hours, etc. as each moment becomes the past, turns into the present, and moves forward to the future. Hameroff explains that because of the conscious perception humans have of the world, time is perceived as being linear and always moving forward.

Does time have anything to do with memory? Is time linear? A University of Arizona study states, “The problem of time is intimately related to our conscious perceptions” (Hameroff). Time moves forward in a linear direction only for those who perceive the world to be moving forward. In certain cases of amnesia, time stops and is stuck in one permanent position. A case study was conducted of a patient with anterograde amnesia, H.M. After having his hippocampus removed to help the symptoms of his epilepsy, H.M. was no longer able to perceive

time. Though H.M. knew everything that had 2 happened to him in the past, he had no recollection of new events; he had no long-term memory. He was unable to recognize the doctors who treated him, his father’s death, or any new words. To remember that he had grabbed the mail that morning, H.M. would have to write himself notes to remember the simplest tasks. Though he kept getting older and people kept leaving, H.M. had no perception that time was even moving. Everything was frozen in one spot: the moment of his surgery (Mcleod).

Time is the organization of memory because the brain records everything happening in the world according to space, time, and frequency. The brain creates a memory from a stimulus as sensory data and is recorded through touch, taste, sound, sight, smell, and proprioception. The brain processes the memory because of perception of sensory information being organized in a way that is meaningful. The brain prepares for upcoming transductions because of the need to restore and rebuild memories. Through all these things, time can be shown as the organization of memory by which the brain creates a memory from a stimulus, processes the memory, and prepares for upcoming transductions.

Works Cited

1. Bihun, Joan. "Sensation, Perception, and Sleep" Introduction to Psychology. CU Denver. Denver, CO. 09/28/2011 – 10/10/2011. In Person.

2. Bruss, F., and Ludge Rüschendorf. "On the Perception of Time." Gerontology. (2009): 361-370. Web. 9 Oct. 2011.

3. Hameroff, Stuart. "Time, Consciousness and Quantum Events in Fundamental Spacetime Geometry." Quantum Consciousness. N.p., 2011. Web. 9 Oct 2011.

4. Mcleod, Saul. "Anterograde Amnesia." Simple Psychology. N.p., 2011. Web. 9 Oct 2011.

5. Myers, David. Psychology. 9. New York: Worth Publishers, 2010. 99-100, 213, 227, 324-327, 612-614. Print.

Image Credits

1. http://cloudcentrics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/timetravel.jpg
2. http://mstatic.mit.edu/nom150/items/160-HM.jpg