For example how come I can be playing a video game and it seems to me time as sped up? Or how about someone in prison or jail and it appears to them that time has slowed? And other. Both groups know its not as speed up or down but just seems that way? Why is this?
There are large-scale brain networks that activate and deactivate for different types of functions (cognitively-demanding tasks, interpreting narratives, reflexive/conditioned activities, etc.), and your experience of time can change depending on which network is active.
No one tell this obvious alien about the human perception of time
Why?
Because you’ll use it for butt stuff like probes man! You can find willing humans for that man you don’t have to try and trick the rest of us!
Read books in jail. Time flies.
What time scale we talking?
Ooh! This is another thing I’m interested in! Our perception of time changes when we’re in flow-states of activity. Flow states occur when you have built a level of practice at a complex task to where you can do it almost reflexively.
Video games are often designed to induce mental flow-states. Tasks requiring high levels of prolonged physical concentration are the same. But confined conditions have the side effect of preventing them, even though they’re not designed with them in mind.
I don’t think it’s been shown conclusively how we perceive time, but the best I’ve heard requires you to understand that reality as you experience it is not accurate. It is a jumbled accumulation of signals, from your numerous sensors, received by your spinal cord and brain at different times and relevancy. It is a tonne of data your brain is constantly sifting through to produce its best guess at an overall picture of what is going on around you, including predictions of what comes next to help speed this process along and/or react to things your brain cannot possibly process fast enough (ie: a game of ping pong, or recoiling from a burning flame).
When things get hectic your brain processing is maxed out. You’re so ‘busy/entertained’ that there is no idle period and each moment is processed as fast as possible. Like a restaurant kitchen scrambling for the dinner rush, there isn’t enough time to keep up.
Contrast this to periods where everything is predictable. Your brain has nothing to do so easily keeps up and but tries to keep itself in an alert state despite this so as to be prepared for anything unexpected. Time drags because your brain is literally bored.
Same reason a walk feels a lot shorter if you’ve done it many times. A 30 min walk to work feels a lot shorter when you know the route by heart than the first time you walked it, because there’s far fewer new things to process.
