Time is a complex and multi-dimensional concept that has fascinated philosophers, scientists, and poets throughout history. Yet, as modern society continues to progress and become more technologically advanced, our understanding and relationship with time has become increasingly distorted. In particular, the idea of the present moment, or the “Now,” has been warped into a spatial concept that fails to capture the true essence of time.

Time is a fundamental aspect of our experience of the world, yet our attempts to understand it have often led us to distort its nature. One way in which time has become increasingly distorted is through our attempts to spatialize it, which has turned it into a measurable and quantifiable commodity rather than a subjective experience.

As soon as we divide time into past, present, and future, we lose sight of its original character and turn it into something measurable. By placing the Now as an “in-between” between past and future, time becomes a divider and loses its intrinsic nature. This division of time into discrete units has allowed us to measure it and quantify it, but it has also robbed it of its subjective character.

As soon as the Now is interposed as an “in-between” between the past and the future, it loses its original character as a mental modality of time and becomes a spatialized modality. This spatialization of time is a perversion of its true nature because it turns time into something that can be measured and quantified, devoid of any qualitative character. The Now becomes a divider, tearing apart past, present, and future, and creating a sense of disunity that was not present before.

Our focus on clock time, in particular, has distorted our understanding of time. The phrase “I have no time” reflects our preoccupation with clock time, but it also reflects our tendency to equate time with productivity and efficiency. We are always trying to “gain time” by increasing our productivity and filling our schedules with activities, but this only leads to an empty and fragmented experience of time.

We also tend to equate time with money, as if time were a commodity that could be bought and sold. This “falsified time” can be turned into money, but it does not have any intrinsic value of its own. Our obsession with productivity and efficiency has led us to quantify time and measure it in increasingly precise units, but this has only served to distort our experience of time.

This disunity is further perpetuated by our tendency to think of time in terms of clock time, leading to a preoccupation with the negative form of time, as expressed by the common phrase “I have no time.” This phrase is symptomatic of our time anxiety and our fixation on gaining more time. However, the time gained is often the wrong kind, transformed into a visible multiplication of spatially fragmented “activity” or wasted on killing time.

Our attempts to fill time with activities and material possessions have also contributed to the distortion of time. By treating time as a bucket to be filled, we have turned it into something empty and spatial rather than a subjective experience. This has led to an anxiety about time, as we try to arrest time and hold onto it through its materialization.

The addiction to speed is another way in which we have distorted time. Each new record is a further step towards the “killing of time,” as we prioritize speed and efficiency over the subjective experience of time. This flight into quantification has brought us closer to the death of time, rather than leading to freedom from it.

This anxiety also leads us to attempt to hold onto time and materialize it, as evidenced by the belief that time is money. However, this belief only serves to further falsify time, turning it into something that can be turned into money rather than a value in its own right. The idea of filling time as if it were an empty container also reinforces this spatialization of time, further divorcing it from its true nature.

The tragedy of our spatialization of time is that it prevents us from finding an escape from spatial captivity. By seeking to locate time “somewhere,” we lose sight of its true nature and become fixated on a distorted and false version of time. This spatial fixation is reinforced by our addiction to speed, which only serves to bring us closer to the death of time rather than leading to freedom from it.

In conclusion, our understanding of time has become increasingly distorted as we have attempted to spatialize it. The Now has become a divider rather than a unifier, and our fixation on clock time and gaining more time has only served to further distance us from the true nature of time. We must learn to appreciate time as a qualitative value in its own right rather than as a quantifiable commodity to be gained or lost. Only then can we escape from spatial captivity and truly understand the complexity and beauty of time.

In summary, our attempts to spatialize time have led us to distort its nature and turn it into a measurable and quantifiable commodity. This has robbed time of its intrinsic value and turned it into something that can be bought, sold, and manipulated. By prioritizing productivity, efficiency, and speed over the subjective experience of time, we have lost sight of the true nature of time and its importance to our lives.