Would you care to listen to some of my ramblings about how perception of tme could affect life spans?
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XOIIO (
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November 17th, 2010
Bear with me, this was rough to put together. I’ve had this concept for a long time, and was finally able to put it into words.
The basic idea it tha the way a life for percieves time is based on it’s size.
An elephant is much larger than a human being, and it lives much longer too. Dogs/cats
are smaller than human beings, so they have a shorter life span. Basically, since the elephant is larger
it’s perception of time would be slower than ours, stretching out it’s lifetime, while animals that are
smaller than us persieve time much faster than we do, they would go through their life span faster. They
would also see the world in a faster way, such as a high speed camera does, and that would
explain how they are able to catch sticks/ balls/ mice a lot easilly, and rarely miss, because since
their perception of time is faster, they would see everything more slowly than we do. This would mean
large animals like elephants would see us moving coniderably faster than we are, because their perception
of time is slower than ours.
The basic idea (as plain as I can lay it down and explain it) IT that the larger an animal, the slower
their perception of time, and vice versa. Since their perception of time is slower (or faster) their life
span is expanded or shortened compared to ours. (Of course this assumes that humans have the basic lifeline,
what we would use in the way we have 0 on a thermometer, and life sans would be higher or lower than ours.
Perhaps the life span of a fly or a single cell would be a baseline. This would need a system to judge life
spans on which would perhaps require a point of view from a being of the 4th dimension, or on a higher plane of existence.)
This is all just rambling off course, the jumbled up thoughts that I have when I drift off in class.
Let me know what you think/ if you understand what I am saying.
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15 Answers
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Your ramblings may reveal one of the benefits of smoking weed.
Having said that, the problem is that only human beings know what time actually is.
Elephants and flies certainly experience it, but they do not know what it is.
Thus there is no real way to measure another critter’s perception of time.
I know what you are saying, but there is just no way to know.
@josie Excellent point, since time is just a creation of man, however, how would the time/space continuum work if time didn’t exist. I guess that is a subject for some other ramblings.
It’s an interesting observation, but the way it is at the moment its just pseudo science. Basically because there are lots of easy to spot exceptions. My parrot is tiny, yet it is estimated to live for another 100 years without a problem. there are turtles smaller than humans that live much longer too, and some larger animals that live less. Sounds like a bit of a correlation/causation fallacy.
@XOIIO Before we misunderstand each other-Time exists with or without human beings. But as far as we can tell, only human beings have identified (at least some of) the elements of its nature. Sort of like light. Many creatures experience it, but they have no knowledge of what it is.
Time only matters in a world or dimension that measures time. As far as the universe goes there is no time.
@Summum Not be argumentative, but time is the non-linear “distance” between events. If time did not exist there would be no events. If there were no events, there would be no worlds or dimensions, plus no universe.
Are there any predictions that this theory would suggest? Is there any way to detect these predictions?
If not, then the theory doesn’t matter. It could be the basis for a science fiction story, I suppose.
Well in the forth and fifth dimension time has no meaning. So that all things happen in the now. There is no time between events.
You are looking at this from the point of view of a human being. To a fly its lifetime might seem like an eternity. There isn’t really such a thing as time only the perception of time. Einstein tells us that a fly moving close to the speed of light would live through centuries or thousands of years of our time.
PS tell your teacher to give you a prod if you drift off in class.
Hey some kind of like prods. :)
Does this mean that really tall or heavy people would perceive time as going more slowly than little people?
What about Oompa-Loompas?
I keep telling people I’m not fat I’m just too short. LOL
Where do you get the idea that elephants live “much longer” than humans? From the little bit of googling I did it seems that elephants can live “into their 70s” if they’re allowed to live a full life cycle. So do humans, at least outside of much of Africa.
Where do tortoises fit in this scheme? They’re smaller than elephants, but they really do live a lot longer. A hundred years or more isn’t unheard-of.
@iamthemob LOL great
@CyanoticWasp Yes, there are some obvious exceptions, life span is a possible part of the rambling, but perception of time and the speed we see things at is the main part.
@flutherother NEVER!
@XOIIO Aside from the fact that fruit flies are very small and live very short life spans, there are some flies in the ointment of your postulate. First, the elephant is far bigger than a human, but lives an average of 50 years or so in the wild. a few make it to 70 or even 80, but that’s a rarity. Blue whales are by far the largest animal on earth, measuring over 90 ft. long and weighing up to 150 tons or more, and they average 50 to 60 years, A relatively small animal, the Parrot routinely lives to be 80 years old. The swan is a somewhat larger bird, but still much smaller than a human or a blue whale. It is generally good for 100 years.
The Galapagos Tortoise is pretty close in size (weight) to a human but lives to be at least 177 years old in captivity. Evidence suggests they may have lives 250 or even 300 years in their native habitat. Of course, you would be right to point out that things move very
S L O W L Y for the tortoise. Even little box turtles live to 120. Catfish typically live to 60 or so.
One more problem. The smallest animal is a protozoan, and they essentially live forever because they divide to reproduce, and the new animal is basically the same as its parent. The cicada is a relatively large insect, but certainly quite small compared to a human. It lives 17 years.
Finally, a Danish study found that the average life expectancy of dogs including all breeds is 10 years. Mixed breeds typically make it to 11. And smaller breeds live longer than large. Go figure. http://www.wonderquest.com/LifeSpan-MaxMin.htm
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