Circles of Fire

The Tyranny Of Modern Time

austinkleon:

Astrophysicist Adam Frank on the invention “that’s killing us”:

Your time — almost entirely divorced from natural cycles — is a new time. Your time, delivered through digital devices that move to nanosecond cadences, has never existed before in human history. As we rush through our overheated days we can barely recognize this new time for what it really is: an invention.

…Mechanical clocks for measuring hours did not appear until the fourteenth century. Minute hands on those clocks did not come into existence until 400 years later. Before these inventions the vast majority of human beings had no access to any form of timekeeping device. Sundials, water clocks and sandglasses did exist. But their daily use was confined to an elite minority…

Check out his book: About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang.

Feeling this, this week.