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Il Mistero Della Percezione Del Tempo (2012)

by Claudia Hammond(Favorite Author)

3.43 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

8858407830 (ISBN13: 9788858407837)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Einaudi

review 1: It can come as no surprise that the perception of time by the brain is more complex than we had previously thought. As with many other perceptual judgements, it appears that the seat of time perception is located in more than one location in the brain. (Another example is pain.) The author's premise is "the experience of time is actively created by our minds." She then proceeds with a well documented inventory of the theories and experiments concerning time perception.In the first chapter, the author makes the point that we are free to read the chapters of the book in our own order. I think this statement points to a weakness in the book. Ironically, the flow of the prose seems to bog at times and to speed up in others. I found that the logic in her own organization of her... more writing was not always apparent to me. While the book held my interest for the most part, I wearied of her continual return to her own time perceptions. I realize this is a point of reference for her, but ultimately it wore out my attention. Further, in an effort to create some suspense, I am assuming; she spaces out the narrative of several of the key examples of time being warped by the stimuli around the experience. I did not like this technique. I prefer to have points made succinctly.Overall, however, I found a lot to appreciate in this book. I was able to familiarize myself with past and present theories in a format that was accessible and well referenced. This book would be considered popular science, but the author was able to avoid "dumbing down" the material.
review 2: ‘ADHD, extreme fear, rejection, boredom and depression can all lead to the sensation that time is slowing down.’ So misery slow the time down, and at the mean time, we learn more from pains. Is this because the slow time to make us experience more in details thus to learn more? ‘There is a theory in the philosophy of personal identity known as psychological reductionism. On this view, the continued existence of an individual person requires, not necessarily the survival of a particular brain or body, but the continuation of our mental lives. Just as long as my ‘steam of consciousness’ continues, I continue. Psychological continuity requires various things, including a certain continuity of belief, memory, personality and intention. All these things may change, but they do so gradually, not all at once. The self is merely the combination of these various factors: it is not a separate entity.’This reminds me of a chapter in ‘The Pig that wants to be eaten’ discussing whether you have the right to make decision for your future self, say 20 years later. When the belief, memory, personality and intention changed in 20 year time, is that you same as who you are today? If you are not the same person, how do you know what the future self wants, thus, you can’t speak on your future self although you have the same body, as your future self is not you. The self includes so many things. Even my name is included as part of my identity. I do not feel my Chinese name fits into this ‘I’ now (feeling weird when people calling my Chinese name), as the name has never linked to any memory, events for about 10 years now. We have taken lots of abilities we have for granted. The past is made up from memories (which was stored in the brain, sometimes can have fault memories), and the future is created by a particular part of our brains (some people are not able to picturing future after brain damage). Therefore, it can be concluded that the time (sense of the past, now, and future) is after all a delusion (heavily rely on the brain), other than a fact. less

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