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The Logarithmic Time Perception Hypothesis

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55 points rzk | 3 comments | 22 Oct 25 15:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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Qem ◴[22 Oct 25 16:50 UTC] No.45671877[source]▶
My hypothesis is a bit different. Instead of logarithimic time perception, informational time perception. Children have brains with high plasticity and huge new information acquisition (learning) rates. Those rates drop as plasticity decreases when one gets older. Those "bitrates" of new information flowing into long-term memory act as sand flowing through a hourglass. A fixed amount of sand represents a fixed amount of subjective time. When those rates drop, we feel time runs faster, because now the same amount of sand (subjective time, information) stretches over more clocktime.
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1. munificent ◴[22 Oct 25 20:02 UTC] No.45674408[source]▶
I think you're onto something, but I don't think it has to do with plasticity, but novelty.

Consider the brain as a giant recording device with very good compression based recognizing patterns from previous data. So the first time you eat an apple, it stores a lot of data because it's a new experience. The next time, it stores something more like "like the last apple, but a little more tart".

I think our perception of time (at the macro scale) is roughly a perception of how much new data our compression-oriented brain is storing. It's the sensation of accumulated novelty.

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2. kridsdale1 ◴[22 Oct 25 22:21 UTC] No.45675899[source]▶
With this in mind, the length of one’s life is not chronological (by a clock) but the integral of the novel information they experience.

So a monotonous 60 year existence is a fraction of the perceived duration of 60 years of a wild and adventurous, constantly reading, learning new languages, making new deep human connections - existence.

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3. squidhunter ◴[23 Oct 25 02:05 UTC] No.45677396[source]▶
I wonder how something like ayahuasca or dmt would impact this. People have described these substances as having a type of mental “reset” quality. If they do impact time perception, I’m assuming it’s only temporary…