Augustin Burchell

22 Apr 2020

How might we think about life and move through the world differently if we had a different relationship with time?

We experience time linearly, that before this, now until then like before. We do all of our living in the vibrant, ever-changing window of the present. While it is vast enough to fit the world, if we allow time some dimensionally then it becomes shallow. All our metrics are calibrated for the timeframe of the present. We consider a person wealthy if they have lots of money, but only if they have that lots of money right now. If I acquired but then lost a modest fortune, I'm not even given the decency of being rich then, but instead formerly rich now.

If time laid out before me -- or wrapped around me -- spatially, would I have different goals? It it were always not only now but also thens in both directions, would I try to get rich quick? If I did then for no matter how fleeting a possession I would be a rich man. Supposing I did get rich quick, but only quick and then quickly gone, I may be rich now (the then now, for us as we see it now) but also destitute now. Living like Dr. Manhattan, would the only thing that matters be the one-time peak of my fortune, able as I'd be to bank on it forever more? Or would I try to get somewhere else quick? Bump myself up from nothing to just a little something right off the bat, but stop before bumping up any higher? With this strategy I'd be a non-profit of sorts, not taking any surplus cash home to the present moment but instead investing. Investing in what? In my future of course! After all I'm sharing it with my past and present presently. Maybe this way I'd keep my penniless portion lean, a smaller weight of my pooled time.