Since there is no generally agreed concept (at least philosophically speaking)- rather an inchoate jumble of constantly mutating theories- if it does represent a dead end or ceiling for us, conceptually it is a very porous one I suspect. There is no doubt all our mental processes by which we map the world and make choices of interacting with it are bounded- if only by evolution and the topologies of our brains and the neural nets. There are things we simply cannot think of: the so called blindspots. The study of these is a fascinating thing. Are all our ontologies incomplete?
As to your second question, a frivolous answer would be to try mashing your thumb with a hammer. But that answer is frivolous because it conflates immediacy with a perhaps fictitious "present". The pain signal, if examined closely might be considered a set of very small "slices" of time...etc. etc. Where do you stop subdividing? You can see why Time is such a bewildering topic!
Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five came "unstuck in time." I thought it was a clever device, and can imagine that it sometimes fits human experience. Probably no help to the philosophical questions, but then it sounds like nothing is. Not even a hammer on a thumb.
Is the human concept of time a mistake in evolution? I wish I could access the present more easily.
By mistake I mean a dead end for humans?
Since there is no generally agreed concept (at least philosophically speaking)- rather an inchoate jumble of constantly mutating theories- if it does represent a dead end or ceiling for us, conceptually it is a very porous one I suspect. There is no doubt all our mental processes by which we map the world and make choices of interacting with it are bounded- if only by evolution and the topologies of our brains and the neural nets. There are things we simply cannot think of: the so called blindspots. The study of these is a fascinating thing. Are all our ontologies incomplete?
As to your second question, a frivolous answer would be to try mashing your thumb with a hammer. But that answer is frivolous because it conflates immediacy with a perhaps fictitious "present". The pain signal, if examined closely might be considered a set of very small "slices" of time...etc. etc. Where do you stop subdividing? You can see why Time is such a bewildering topic!
Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five came "unstuck in time." I thought it was a clever device, and can imagine that it sometimes fits human experience. Probably no help to the philosophical questions, but then it sounds like nothing is. Not even a hammer on a thumb.
Yeah time fly's when you're having fun but seems to drag when you are suffering!