# Poll: time perception **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 12, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222 "2009-08-12T21:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/101 "2009-08-14T17:48:01Z")
> [@emcee2k](#): > > You know, given the prevalence of people with a concept of time where they stay still, and events move towards them, I can kind of understand now why people just assumed the Earth was the center of the Universe, with everything revolving around it. Heh. That’s another NLP exercise. I believe that Einstein came up with it. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/102 "2009-08-14T17:56:58Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Not to get too far off topic, but you don’t need the magic of Jebus to move your death sign around. Geez, I work for a huge place where our sole product is moving the death sign further away. Well I would certainly say moving the birth sign forward would require magic. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/103 "2009-08-14T17:57:57Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Well I would certainly say moving the birth sign forward would require magic. True enough. (But what about born-agains?) ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/104 "2009-08-14T18:04:35Z")
There’s all kinds of magic going on with those guys. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/105 "2009-08-14T18:52:21Z")
It seems to me this has nothing to do with our perception of “time”, per se. More precisely, it’s about how we view future events. If I say, “I’m going back in time,” I think pretty much everyone would understand that means I am moving from the present into the past. If I say, “Spock went back in time,” we would understand that he moved from his present into his past, which may be our past or present, but could also be our future. If I say, then, that “I’m going forward in time,” it clearly means that I’m moving into the future. And specifically, if I say, “I’m going back 30 years,” or “I’m going forward 3 days,” you’ll know how far into the past or the future I intend to go. So to me, intuitively, if you say you’re moving a Wednesday meeting “forward 2 days,” my first impulse is to think it’s on Friday. Because if _I_ were to move forward 2 days from Wednesday, that’s exactly where I’d be. But I can also easily conceive of events as a series of objects in a horizontal “stack”, like a set of files in a drawer. If you asked me to move the middle file all the way “forward”, I would of course move it toward me, to the front of the drawer, so that it is the first file I encounter. So it seems the question is not whether we see ourselves moving forward, backward, upward, or twirling towards Freedom, but whether we see _events_ moving in time vs. in space. In that sense, I intuitively see them as moving in time, but I’ve long since realized that many (if not most) people see them as moving in space, so I always ask. As for **tdn’s** sub-poll… don’t like it. 🙂 When I picture “time”, I picture a left-to-right timeline, and if you ask me to picture myself on that timeline, I’d put a little stick figure of me on there, and picture it walking from left to right. If I do what **tdn** is asking - that is picture the line as though I’m standing on it - I feel a little vertigo, and then I picture it stretching out ahead of me, like a road reaching to the horizon: …Future …|… …/…Death …/…| …/… …/…Now …/…| …and then behind me… … …Birth…/\ …|…/…\ …/…\ …/…\ Because if I _were_ the little stick figure, this is what I would see. If you told me to move forward on that road, I’d move toward Future. If you told me to pick up a box next to me and move it forward, I’d move it toward Future. And if you told me to pluck the “Death” sign out of the ground and move it forward, I’d move it toward Future. Man, that was hard to draw! ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/106 "2009-08-14T18:57:11Z")
> [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > It So it seems the question is not whether we see ourselves moving forward, backward, upward, or twirling towards Freedom Twirling, twirling, _twirling_ towards freedom! Haaa! ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/107 "2009-08-14T19:01:36Z")
> [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Man, that was hard to draw! Very cool, though, thanks! I get pretty much the same imagery, but without the vertigo and stick figure. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/108 "2009-08-14T19:08:14Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I get pretty much the same imagery, but without the vertigo and stick figure. I don’t know if I should call it vertigo, but that’s the best word I have for it: I’m looking at the little people in the model town, and then - whoosh! - I’m _in_ the model town, a la Beetlejuice. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/109 "2009-08-14T19:35:28Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Can you picture it? Now… How is the line oriented in relation to you, and in which directions are the signs? Right, left, in front, in back? Diagonal? > > State again if you’re a Monday or a Friday. The “death” sign is in front of me, the “birth” sign is behind me. I’m standing on “now.” And if my spam-posting hasn’t reminded people enough, I’m a Monday. And I notice that none of the Fridays seem to have responded to my citation of the “situated in advance” definition for “forward.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/110 "2009-08-14T20:00:21Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Can you picture it? Now… How is the line oriented in relation to you, and in which directions are the signs? Right, left, in front, in back? Diagonal? I’d say that I’m walking on the line, with “My Birth” behind me and “My Death” in front of me. I’m a Monday. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/111 "2009-08-14T20:52:48Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > For you Fridays who think that all of us Mondays are batshit insane, here’s another way to think of it. Picture yourself standing in the middle of a giant chessboard. The chessboard is without time, it only had spacial dimensions. Since there is no game of chess going on, there is no white side or black side. You have no idea which way the pawns move. > > A few squares away from you is a queen. “Bring her forward”, you say. Does she get closer to you or further away? Errr… I don’t see this at all. Except in extraordinary circumstances people don’t stand in the middle of chess boards. What happens 99.9999% of the time is that a player moves a piece “forward” and it goes further away from them. Pointing out an extremely rare exception would not seem to support your position. Which isn’t to say I agree with the “Fridays.” As several people have posted, it’s a matter of usage. And **Elfkin477** effectively demolished the Friday goobers by listing the Top 10 Google hits for “moved forward” … every one of which was used to mean occurring sooner (rather than later.) You can argue that an expression should mean something other than what it means… but in this case the Friday people’s reasoning is not decidedly more logical than the Monday’s and popular usage is overwhelmingly against them. Again: Overwhelmingly against them. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/112 "2009-08-14T21:33:46Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > Errr… I don’t see this at all. Except in extraordinary circumstances people don’t stand in the middle of chess boards. What happens 99.9999% of the time is that a player moves a piece “forward” and it goes further away from them. Pointing out an extremely rare exception would not seem to support your position. Yes, but the example is meant to establish that you are in the middle of time (with past being one color of chess pieces and future being the other). When you’re the player, you’re sitting at one end, not the middle, so your perspective is totally different. Thus, the analogy. Not the best ever, but I got what they were going for. ---
**Author:** ![Iubaris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@Iubaris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iubaris)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/113 "2009-08-14T21:46:45Z")
I’ve always thought that being “pushed forward” means earlier in time - I’m a Monday person. I can see where Friday people are coming from, though- if we’re talking about time as absolute rather than relative, a meeting that goes forward through time would be two days later, not earlier, just as time traveling to the past would be going “backwards” in time. However, I think of events as relative to the present: a meeting next Wednesday, for example. Being pushed forward would mean being pushed towards you - after all, forward comes from **fore** , or before. So the meeting is scheduled for earlier than its original date. If some of the Fridays are so insistent that workplaces use their mode of thinking, perhaps this is a regional issue? ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/114 "2010-06-11T22:11:40Z")
Make the announcement about the change on Tuesday. Problem solved! ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/115 "2010-06-11T22:32:33Z")
I thought Friday. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/116 "2010-06-12T05:01:37Z")
To me, BOTH words would put the meeting on Monday . . . which is strange, since I think I’m somewhat angrier than most people. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/117 "2010-06-12T06:32:15Z")
> [@emcee2k](#): > > Monday people must think of time as a conveyor belt in front of them, with future events laid out on it, “moving forward” towards them. Whereas I, a Friday person, look at time as stationary strip of events, that I walk along. > > To me, the past is behind me, the future is in front of me. If I got in a time machine, and decided to go back in time, I’d be moving into the past. Hence, moving an event “forward”, to me, means moving it into the future. > > However, if someone says an event is going to be “pushed back”, I know they mean it will happen later, simply because I know that’s the most common usage of that phrase, even if it doesn’t really make sense from my perspective. > > And yes, I’m very angry. This is exactly how I pictured it - walking straight ahead down a flat strip of time. A white paper strip at that, boxed and dated. Forward is the next date on the strip because it is the direction I’m facing. I would never in a million years have thought ‘Monday’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222.md?page=5)