Mechanical timepieces have always been used not only to mark the passage of time, but also to dictate the scheduling of activities; they regulate the speed of action and therefore the pace of society.  “Contemporary ideas about promptness would have been incomprehensible to the vast majority of our predecssors,” concludes Robert Levine in his book A Geography of Time.

The Greeks, Levine explains, had two words for time: chronos and kairos.  Chronos means absolute time: linear, chronological, and quantifiable.  Kairos, however, means qualitative time – the time of opportunity, chance and mischance.  If you go to bed because the clock says 10:30, you are adhering to a chronological time system.  If you go to sleep because you’re tired, you are following kairological or event time.  Before they shifted to a more clock-based way of doing things, people listened to their bodies to tell them when to do things.  Babies, so much in touch with their internal needs, are perfect examples of humans turned to kairological time.  The clash between personal time flow (getting food, going home) and the public time flow (standing in a queue) is experienced as disturbing.

Our concept of time as dictated by the clock is so ingrained in us that it seems almost impossible to imagine what life would have been like before rush hour, minute rice, and never having a second to think.  In fact, in some ways, our concept of time is shaped by our conflict with it (how often do you think about the time when you are enjoying yourself or have nothing to do?).  Furthermore, it is almost frightening to think that the pace of life will only continue to accelerate.

Anyways, to lighten things up, here’s another astute set of observations about our changing perceptions of time from the comedian Louis C.K.’s appearance on Conan: