WEBVTT

00:00:14.324 --> 00:00:15.986
Hello, humans.

00:00:15.986 --> 00:00:17.695
My name is Matt

00:00:17.695 --> 00:00:19.450
and for the next several moments,

00:00:19.450 --> 00:00:21.945
you are going to listen to me.

00:00:21.945 --> 00:00:24.715
Mwah, ha, ha, ha, ha.

00:00:24.715 --> 00:00:27.116
Sorry. I'm just joking.

00:00:29.458 --> 00:00:31.735
This is my normal voice.

00:00:31.735 --> 00:00:32.884
Have you ever taken direction

00:00:32.884 --> 00:00:36.070
from a mysterious voice on the computer before?

00:00:36.070 --> 00:00:38.281
No? Perfect!

00:00:38.281 --> 00:00:40.227
I want to try an experiment with you,

00:00:40.227 --> 00:00:42.411
but I can't tell you what that experiment entails

00:00:42.411 --> 00:00:43.488
because if I do,

00:00:43.488 --> 00:00:44.800
it won't work.

00:00:44.800 --> 00:00:46.706
You'll just have to trust me.

00:00:46.706 --> 00:00:49.051
This will all make sense soon,

00:00:49.051 --> 00:00:50.467
hopefully.

00:00:50.467 --> 00:00:51.621
If you're sitting down,

00:00:51.621 --> 00:00:54.436
stand up from your chair and take a step back.

00:00:54.436 --> 00:00:56.522
In a moment, I'm going to have you twirl around,

00:00:56.522 --> 00:00:59.181
so give yourself a bit of space.

00:00:59.181 --> 00:01:01.179
Need to move some furniture around?

00:01:01.179 --> 00:01:02.305
Take your time.

00:01:02.305 --> 00:01:03.008
I'll wait.

00:01:04.808 --> 00:01:05.880
On the count of three,

00:01:05.880 --> 00:01:08.408
you're going to start hopping on one foot.

00:01:08.408 --> 00:01:10.433
Are you ready?

00:01:10.433 --> 00:01:11.478
One,

00:01:11.478 --> 00:01:12.808
two,

00:01:12.808 --> 00:01:13.811
three!

00:01:13.811 --> 00:01:14.696
Hop,

00:01:14.696 --> 00:01:15.521
hop,

00:01:15.521 --> 00:01:16.104
hop,

00:01:16.104 --> 00:01:17.567
hop,

00:01:17.567 --> 00:01:19.015
hop.

00:01:19.015 --> 00:01:20.267
Nice work!

00:01:20.267 --> 00:01:22.111
OK, while you're still hopping,

00:01:22.111 --> 00:01:25.020
I now want you to begin barking like a dog.

00:01:25.020 --> 00:01:26.450
Ruff, ruff;

00:01:26.450 --> 00:01:27.733
ruff, ruff;

00:01:27.733 --> 00:01:29.619
ruff, ruff.

00:01:29.619 --> 00:01:31.765
Wow, that's quite a bark!

00:01:31.765 --> 00:01:33.080
And a few more.

00:01:33.080 --> 00:01:35.798
Ruff, ruff, ruff.

00:01:35.798 --> 00:01:37.071
And three,

00:01:37.071 --> 00:01:37.938
two,

00:01:37.938 --> 00:01:38.843
one,

00:01:38.843 --> 00:01:40.130
stop!

00:01:40.130 --> 00:01:42.590
Feel free to relax and sit back down.

00:01:42.590 --> 00:01:45.083
Now, I want you think about how much time passed

00:01:45.083 --> 00:01:46.765
between the moment I said, "Go!"

00:01:46.765 --> 00:01:48.606
and you began hopping on one foot

00:01:48.606 --> 00:01:50.433
to the moment I said, "Stop!"

00:01:50.433 --> 00:01:51.835
Take a guess.

00:01:51.835 --> 00:01:55.523
I'm looking for an exact number of seconds or minutes.

00:01:55.523 --> 00:01:58.105
Now, with a pen and paper, write that number down.

00:01:59.520 --> 00:02:00.875
All done?

00:02:00.875 --> 00:02:04.529
The exact time was actually 26 seconds.

00:02:04.529 --> 00:02:06.083
Did you overestimate?

00:02:06.083 --> 00:02:07.993
Chances are that you did.

00:02:07.993 --> 00:02:10.102
So, what was the culprit?

00:02:10.102 --> 00:02:12.637
The culprit was time perception.

00:02:12.637 --> 00:02:16.005
Although we can make shockingly precise time estimates,

00:02:16.005 --> 00:02:19.001
when we experience something new, unusual, or dynamic,

00:02:19.001 --> 00:02:20.254
like hopping on one foot

00:02:20.254 --> 00:02:23.455
while taking instructions from a voice on the computer,

00:02:23.455 --> 00:02:25.916
or, say, jumping out of an airplane,

00:02:25.916 --> 00:02:29.178
we often miscalculate how much time has passed.

00:02:29.178 --> 00:02:31.416
Meaning, if you bungee jump for the first time,

00:02:31.416 --> 00:02:35.096
your fall to the bottom may seem like it lasted for 10 seconds

00:02:35.096 --> 00:02:37.270
while the recorded time may actually show

00:02:37.270 --> 00:02:39.836
that the jump only lasted for 5.

00:02:39.836 --> 00:02:41.821
The reason for this difference is

00:02:41.821 --> 00:02:43.943
unlike your body's physical drop to the bottom,

00:02:43.943 --> 00:02:46.370
your brain's perception of time does not follow

00:02:46.370 --> 00:02:49.117
a straight line between two points.

00:02:49.117 --> 00:02:50.480
Some scientists even believe

00:02:50.480 --> 00:02:52.660
your brain follows more of a curved path

00:02:52.660 --> 00:02:54.683
that is dependent on the amount of information

00:02:54.683 --> 00:02:57.346
you take in as you fall downwards.

00:02:57.346 --> 00:02:59.125
For example, David Eagleman,

00:02:59.125 --> 00:03:01.710
a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine,

00:03:01.710 --> 00:03:04.377
believes time perception is heavily influenced

00:03:04.377 --> 00:03:06.501
by the number of memories and data

00:03:06.501 --> 00:03:08.384
you record onto your brain.

00:03:08.384 --> 00:03:09.802
When you have a new experience,

00:03:09.802 --> 00:03:12.633
like jumping off a high dive for the first time,

00:03:12.633 --> 00:03:14.169
your senses are heightened.

00:03:14.169 --> 00:03:15.544
You're taking in more details

00:03:15.544 --> 00:03:17.770
about sights, sounds, and smells

00:03:17.770 --> 00:03:19.521
than you normally would.

00:03:19.521 --> 00:03:21.219
And you store more data onto your brain

00:03:21.219 --> 00:03:23.231
in the form of memories.

00:03:23.231 --> 00:03:25.056
So, the more data you store in your brain,

00:03:25.056 --> 00:03:28.706
like the smell of chlorine as you leapt from the high dive

00:03:28.706 --> 00:03:30.116
or the color of the water,

00:03:30.116 --> 00:03:33.288
the longer your perception of that experience.

00:03:33.288 --> 00:03:34.817
Meaning, the number of memories

00:03:34.817 --> 00:03:36.711
and data you record on your brain

00:03:36.711 --> 00:03:38.706
has a direct impact on how long

00:03:38.706 --> 00:03:41.215
you believe that experience to have lasted.

00:03:41.215 --> 00:03:42.763
Have you ever heard a person recount

00:03:42.763 --> 00:03:45.236
what it's like to be in a car accident?

00:03:45.236 --> 00:03:48.553
Although automotive accidents typically last seconds,

00:03:48.553 --> 00:03:50.597
those involved often say they felt

00:03:50.597 --> 00:03:54.377
the accident lasted far longer.

00:03:54.377 --> 00:03:56.474
Time perception can also account for

00:03:56.474 --> 00:03:59.614
why your childhood may have seem to have lasted forever.

00:03:59.614 --> 00:04:02.940
By adulthood, a year can slip by in a heartbeat,

00:04:02.940 --> 00:04:06.012
but children record more data onto their brains.

00:04:06.012 --> 00:04:07.692
This occurs because many of the experiences

00:04:07.692 --> 00:04:12.071
we have as children are new and unfamiliar to us.

00:04:12.071 --> 00:04:14.075
The stack of encoded memories on your brain

00:04:14.075 --> 00:04:16.993
is so dense that reading them back makes you believe

00:04:16.993 --> 00:04:20.256
your experiences must have taken forever.

00:04:20.256 --> 00:04:22.122
Additionally, when you're 5 years old,

00:04:22.122 --> 00:04:25.093
one year is 1/5 of your life.

00:04:25.093 --> 00:04:28.623
But, when you're 25, one year makes up 1/25,

00:04:28.623 --> 00:04:31.219
further altering your perception of time.

00:04:31.219 --> 00:04:32.616
And, if you're an adult,

00:04:32.616 --> 00:04:34.295
think about a trip that you may have taken

00:04:34.295 --> 00:04:37.334
to a far-away land for the first time.

00:04:37.334 --> 00:04:40.093
Didn't those two weeks you spent exploring your surroundings

00:04:40.093 --> 00:04:43.512
seem to have lasted far longer than 14 days?

00:04:43.512 --> 00:04:44.973
Though time perception is rooted

00:04:44.973 --> 00:04:47.181
in both hard science and theory,

00:04:47.181 --> 00:04:48.933
it provides a great lesson for us

00:04:48.933 --> 00:04:50.684
on how to live our lives.

00:04:50.684 --> 00:04:52.279
I'm sure you have all heard

00:04:52.279 --> 00:04:53.729
that a person shouldn't sit on a couch

00:04:53.729 --> 00:04:56.096
and let life pass them by.

00:04:56.096 --> 00:04:58.586
Well, time perception tells us why that is.

00:04:58.586 --> 00:05:00.027
If you get up and engage with the world

00:05:00.027 --> 00:05:01.445
and have new experiences,

00:05:01.445 --> 00:05:03.948
and maybe even hop around on one foot

00:05:03.948 --> 00:05:05.668
and bark like a dog,

00:05:05.668 --> 00:05:07.036
you will literally perceive your own life

00:05:07.036 --> 00:05:10.421
to have lasted for a longer period of time.