Dr. David Eagleman

So time perception is something I've been studying since graduate school.

And I'm happy to say I've got papers in science and nature and the top journals on this topic.

Why?

Because it's such a weird thing that's so understudied about why we perceive time the way we do.

So let me say a few things about it.

One is that it is a –

These longer timescales, what you're referring to, thinking about being far away in space and time, this is a cognitive development.

Children can't do this well, and they learn better and better.

So, for example, if you talk to a seventh grader and you talk about the Roman Empire and what was happening 2,200 years ago, it doesn't mean anything.

It's like, okay, that's the past and whatever.

But as you get older, if you become, let's say, a professional historian, you get better and better at understanding that.

Why?

Because you've lived –

And so now you can sort of think, you can sort of feel what a century might look like.

And you can sort of, with practice, get better at these things.

But the point is that is something we learn how to do, both in space and time.

Obviously, when you're an infant in the crib, space is just a really close thing.

It's your whole world.

It's your whole world.

But eventually you get outside and you look down long highways in Utah and you really start getting a better sense of this world.