v2: updated 2025
Time, Consciousness, and the Efficiency Paradox
Time is the only constant—an aspect of existence we rarely question, even as reality presses its weight upon us. Life itself can be understood as the entropic growth, decay, and eventual end of a system. The system’s beginning and end validate its very context; the unfolding process becomes the central plot of what we call self-awareness. These limits give meaning to the concept of “time.”
Our physiology offers little relief. We cannot tolerate chaos—the disruption of equilibrium in our field of experience—yet the feedback generated by such disturbance is essential to a system’s integrity. The span from tension to resolution is measured by consciousness itself, forming a “field of attention.” Optically, when confronted with a heterogeneous light field, we immediately divide it into figure and ground. This impulse to integrate visual fields into a balanced whole operates in both physiology and psychology. Repeating the cycle of tension and resolution feeds the mind, embedding lessons that boost systemic efficiency and produce surplus energy for further growth—or further decay. From this phenomenon arises our confused equation of time with efficiency, which in turn shapes how we spend that surplus.
We rationalize experience by building mental models, then share and reify those models through language. This process is driven by our flawed belief in efficiency and our desire to channel surplus energy into system growth. Paradoxically, in acts of pleasure we withhold that surplus, prolonging tension in search of a richer climax—revealing how counter-intuitive the economy of excess energy can be.
The interplay of surplus energy, time, and efficiency underpins our social fabric. Our obsession with optimization ignores the limits of the shared models we depend upon. In techno-social terms, it resembles a machine-learning system that never retrains: efficient at first, yet increasingly irrelevant as its data set ages. The romantic notion that “the world is shrinking” may simply mean we perceive less of it.
Efficiency fuels social structures, which operate as closed loops requiring disciplined use of surplus energy to stay in balance. Time grants efficiency its meaning. We inhabit a world of “time machines,” where the plastic architecture of daily life revolves around saving minutes. The worth of any expenditure is judged by the time it saves—or wastes. Time embodies surplus energy: simultaneously squandered and prized.
Instant gratification provides an efficient escape from uncertainty. Relying on established models demands less imagination than cultivating new cognitive capacities for genuine equilibrium. In an exchange economy ruled by the pleasure principle, experiences are commodities. The prevailing mantra—maximum pleasure for minimal time—dazzles us with a polished but shallow logic, blinding us to deeper possibilities.
draft v1: 2018
Time is the only constant, very existence which we seldom question, coerced by the grim reality. In other words, seemingly, life can be described as entropic growth, decay, and end of a system. The start and the end of the system become the confounding validation of its own context, and the process itself manifests as the central plot of what we call self-awareness. It’s these limits that give meaning to the concept of “Time.”
The physiological response of our sensory experience doesn't help either. We cannot bear chaos - the disturbance of equilibrium in the field of experience. But this feedback of a system is central to maintaining its integrity. The duration of this tension to resolution is inevitably quantified by our self-awareness and establishes a psychological field of attention. In an optical sense, when exposed to a light field with a slight degree of heterogeneousness, one organizes that field at once into two opposing elements, a figure, and background. But this dynamic tendency to integrate the optical fields into balanced, unified whole acts within both Physiology and Psychology. Repetition of a sort in the process of resolution within our experience feeds into the psychological field. The learnings acquired from these experiences are embodied to increase the system's efficiency and create an excess of energy that could be used by the system for further growth or decay. The misconstrued correlation between time and efficiency originates amidst this phenomenon and influences the expenditure of the excess energy.
The rationalization of experiences by creating models, and the sharing and reifying of these models through language, could be seen as being driven by our misconceived notions of efficiency and the appropriation of the excess of energy for the growth of the system. It’s still fascinating or and some-how counter intuitive, how this generation of excess of energy is denied for prolonged tension in the physiological field, during the acts of pleasure, for a more enriching and fulfilling resolution/climax.
The interplay between excessive energy, time and efficiency, is a core pillar of our social construct. Our paranoia of making everything efficient lacks any consideration of the limits of the shared experience model that we rely on. Within the patois of the techno-social, it’s like relying on a machine learning model that doesn’t evolve over time, and over time loses relevance because of an archaic data set. A more romanticized declaration that the world is shrinking can be interpreted as us seeing less in it.
Efficiency is the key to the growth of the social structure, which is a closed-loop. Social structures are built around efficiency and require efficient use of excess energy to maintain a balanced state. And the concept of time is what gives meaning to efficiency. We live in a world of time machines. The plastic organization of the world revolves around saving time. The value of any expenditure is defined by the time it saves or wastes. Time is the embodiment of excessive energy; time is a waste and, at the same time, a luxury.
Instant gratification is an efficient escape from the uncertainty of the system. Resolution based on existing models aids the lack of imagination and development of the cognitive capacity to achieve a natural balance. In the world where the exchange economy is based on the "pleasure principle," we are in the free market that sells experiences. Maximum pleasure with a minimum investment of time is the mantra, and this shining facade of pseudo-logic blinds us.