In the words of an 88 year old man from Helsinki…

The reason time speeds up as one ages

“But the real difference between being young or old is in the control of time. When you are very young many things are entirely novel and one must be on the lookout to be prepared for surprises and modifications in quick reactions to the unexpected. As one ages one works out what is called “macros” in computer terminology. One gives up thinking about complex processes and works out unconscious links of interactions so that repeated interactions for procedures become unconscious and take no conscious time. One’s mind, unburdened by conscious processes, wanders off into more interesting areas while navigating from the living room to the kitchen and one stands before the refrigerator, conscious of present time again, wondering what the hell one wanted in going there. That interim of time simply does not exist and, as with many standard mental macros, time simply seems to speed up and the days and weeks and months of one’s remaining life seem to become terribly shortened. Just as when one learns to drive a car or fly a plane, each necessary process must, at first, be carefully thought out, but as one becomes experienced these processes become unconscious and require no conscious thought and seem to take no time. So it is with life in general as one ages and so many processes become automatic and cease to exist in time so that time seems to speed up. That really is the problem with aging as life seems to flow past much more quickly and there never seems time to get things done.”

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