Time Flies
3 November 2010 Hits:2536
Canadian Scientists at the University of Alberta (Dr. Anthony Chaston and research colleague, Dr. Alan Kingstone) have proven once and for all that time really does fly when you're having fun. Or at least, it flies when your attention is engaged.
The scientists devised a test that required subjects to find specific items in various images (similar to a Where’s Wally picture). Before the subjects started the test they were told that once they had completed it they would be asked to estimate how much time had passed during their test.
There were seven levels of difficulty. In the more difficult tests, the items were placed among many similar looking items, or they didn't even exist in the image at all.
“The harder and harder the search tasks were, the smaller and smaller the estimates became," said Chaston. That is, the more your attention is engaged the faster time seems to pass. And that’s the key to why time flies more these days than in days gone by.
Think about it – 100 years ago no one had travelled at more than 50 kilometres an hour. Today space travel allows people to go around the earth in 80 minutes.
And what about the increase in knowledge? The total storage of knowledge is doubling every eight years. Eighty percent of all the scientists who ever lived are alive today. Every single minute 2,000 pages are added to man’s scientific knowledge. The scientific material produced in one day would take one person five years to read. About half a million books are published each year. The fastest computer in the world can peak at two quadrillion operations per second! One edition of any major newspaper has more information than the average person living in the 17th century would have come across in a lifetime.
The prophet Daniel predicted this age more than 2,600 years ago speaking of the end times when “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” Our attention is engaged more than ever and so time flies faster than ever.
With time flying faster it’s important that there are no regrets. American Professor Mason Cooley said, “Regret for wasted time is more wasted time.” You cannot change what you’ve done with the past but, as one year closes and another begins, you can make a decision not to waste the future. 2011 is going to fly just as fast as this year, therefore it’s important that you don’t end a year with regrets but rather plan ahead. Do some planning now by scheduling the most important things: time with God and His people; time with family and friends; time for fun and recreation; time for work and rest and time to help others less fortunate.
Your time is going to fly – make sure you’re flying in the right direction.
Rob Buckingham
Senior Minister
