You may have heard: Sommaroey Island in Norway may do away with time. Residents of the island don’t experience time as people elsewhere do. From May to July, the sun doesn’t set on Sommaroey. From November to January, it doesn’t rise.
Proponents of a time-free island zone say it would reduce stress. “…the change would not mean that shops are open 24/7, but that residents could make better use of the daylight,” reported ABC News.
Living without time is an astonishing idea.
In modern life, time is a critical organizational tool. We divide our experience into centuries, years, daytime and nighttime, hours and minutes. Our actions are informed by schedules. We need to arrive at class, at work, at the bus stop, at a restaurant, or at a ballgame at a specific time.
However, time is not nearly as straightforward as it seems.
In a review of Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientific Investigation, The Economist opined, “Time is such a slippery thing. It ticks away, neutrally, yet it also flies and collapses, and is more often lost than found. Days can feel eternal but a month can gallop past. So, is time ever perceived objectively? Is this experience innate or is it learned? And how long is ‘now,’ anyway? Such questions have puzzled philosophers and scientists for over 2,000 years.”
Residents of Sommaroey have been pondering life without time and whether it is actually possible. The leader of the move to abolish time told ABC News, living without time, ‘is a great solution but we likely won't become an entirely time-free zone as it will be too complex.’
Weekly Commentary for June 24, 2019
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