Time and Speed

 

Shree

Time means change and it also means comparisons. It is also the effort to accomplish an ideal situation. This tendency is applicable to the individual and also to the entire world of Nations.

I consider “acceleration of time” as one of the emerging behavioral changes affecting all of us. To decode this phenomenon is a spiritual, psychological, social, cultural, environmental, legal and financial journey to undertake. Above experiences are interdependent. My question to all is what does acceleration mean to you? What is accomplished by doing multiple things, at a faster rate and being continuously engaged in pursuit of something? Why does this happen?

Spiritually it is to know oneself. If I am mind or body, I will remain incomplete in whatever I do, in whatever pace and in whatever manner. By existence, I create situations that keep changing. This causes fear in us and we expect control. Expecting something and running after something and being disappointed and experiencing cycles of pain and pleasure - can it be solved by any system or any situation or by a person or by an individual or by a Nation? Please consider this question and find the answer for it yourself.

Desire cannot be fulfilled by actions of any kind – it is like putting butter on fire. By this, I mean that to do a particular thing at some decided rate does not guarantee eternal peace of any kind. Contrary to this, as one does things faster, multitasks things, starts to micro manage and micro control things, the “changes” appear much faster increasing the urge to aggressively control the accelerated changes. In a nutshell, micro control and micro planning results in faster changes in time and that increases anxiety and fear. This point comes into sharp focus as more and more of our activities, actions, outputs come under the influence of AI systems. The change has been happening for decades as far as the Developed Nations are concerned and the same nature of change is also knocking at our doorsteps.

The change can be spoken from the individual point of view as well as the collective. At the basis of this control and the nature of AI, is the expectation of humans to micro control all things and enhancement of the spirit of individualism – unlimited opportunities, creation of unlimited choices and to plan and execute things as per the individual will. As a result, for me this means that a situation consists of endless planning and choosing each and every action based on our billion changing priorities and to remain engaged with them based on how micro parameters change. I become too busy and completely self absorbed/ self obsessed with unending tasks. I can spare “no time” for anything else (any other person or any other “random” situation) since it will infringe the tightly woven tasks and that will obviously “annoy” me. So I reject any appeals from people or any random incidences that request my attention – these may range from kids asking your time, wife asking your time for discussing an issue, to traffic jams, to unplanned groceries to anything that may potentially disrupt my planned routine. This attitude has repercussions. Each person becomes an island in himself/ herself. He/ she is forced to believe that he/ she is “responsible” for everything under the sun for his/her self created routines, since each routine becomes extremely individually flavoured, so the point of “sharing” common concerns does not seem to arise at all! Thus, loneliness and anxiety can kick in for all people at all ages and there is no easy solution to this situation. Secondly anything that does not become predictable in the language of algorithm also gets chucked away.  A kid crying and the time required to pacify the kid is one such example for the parent. Feelings of all scales (kids, genders, elders) cannot be “contained” in a time slot and cannot be “predicted” to erupt and go! Feelings are irrational (non linear and non algorithmic) and hence require a different outlook to respond to them. A person may expect more than just logical answer to his/her problem (he/she may expect a listening ear and a hug – which according to a rational fellow, is completely uncalled for and may not even feature in the remotest corner of his/her imagination!) Hence people may feel suffocated and taxed by this extremely formalized routine, but may not understand what is happening to them. They may be extremely uncomfortable to even discuss their feelings (since they have already become islands in themselves) and even if anybody even attempted, then that person expressing his/her feelings maybe received with a cold shoulder by others and not even any acknowledgement of his/her feelings will be done. Acknowledgement does not mean mere explicit use of words – it means meaningful or intuitive eye contact, a gesture, a touch, a sound – all these things. In this entire system, the biggest beating that takes place psychologically is to not being empathetic to others feelings – be they human beings or animals. Ironically, I get so consumed in my own tasks that I fail to take notice of other spontaneous dimensions of the mind wishing to express themselves that creates mental fractures of sorts. In one way, this is self inflicted violence. I feel that this is the cost of individualism – loss of empathy and loneliness.

At a more general level, since everyone becomes an island in himself/herself, the idea or any thought or experience of “collective” does not arise! So some questions of why dining spaces are required, why streets are required, why common play grounds are required or even why gathering spaces are required abound in such scenarios or in such Nations. Secondly when one considers what is “collective” then it can encompass any concept from environment to ecology to shared history to a shared memory to shared feelings to shared threats and shared apprehensions. This means a shared experience of time, space, place - commonly called as “culture”. If there is nothing to be shared, then these concepts and space arising from them hold no meaning. Of course one may also argue that unnecessary superstitions, gender biases, arguments, also go away. Nothing remains since nothing is expected to be remained and dwelled further. Then one sees erasure of historical objects, built environments, cultural habitats, ecologically sensitive places and so on. Fundamentally, there is no place for “memory” in our minds. If anything I do is bound to change at a fraction of a second, then why bother to remember anything at all? The gravity of this question, if it sinks in, is too enormous and can literally fracture everything from a humanly shared experience to the environment around us. An existential crisis can strike one and all.

Lastly an appeal needs to be made about billion ways of thinking, processing, experiencing and responding to self and others. We have so many varieties of cultures – all a response to geographical situations. Self is not just an individual contained in a mind and body. In fact, mind is a phenomenon that can stretch to include all forms of existence. When will we understand this, if we do not allow the time to form such imaginations in our mind?

Should we believe that not doing anything by kids is a “waste of time?” When one does not do anything, is that person really wasting his/her time? If I stare at the sun and feel the silence of uncommunicated words between my family members, isn’t that a gift of communication that I have developed? If I paint or I sing, does that mean I am not producing anything? If I paint to express in silent ways, then will you understand this language? If I am ambiguous, I express feelings, I have a hobby, I take a stroll, I choose to remain slow and silent most of the times – where does this definition fit in the world of hurriedness? If I choose not to compete for the sake of pursuing anything, is that to be treated as a fault? If I just do a thing without a competitive purpose, is that wrong? If I say that I do not know all things instantly, is that a crime? If I say that I choose to just love a person without any conditions attached, does that sound unbelievable? If I say that facebook and google and their aspirations are trash, will you even consider why am I saying so?

After all, where is this running going to take us? More important than that – why do we run? This is a spiritual question – the one that has the potential to become God….but are you interested?!

 

Hari Om.