Time and change are to the universe, as food and drink are to a human beings. Time and change are constants. Time and change are infinite rulers; they are absolute. We have clocks because it portrays a physical, mechanical manifestation of the evanescent. it serves as an instrument for measurement. The clock changes, as time passes, yet it is always the same, unless your batteries are low, 3 o'clock will always be at three o'clock. The hands will change positions, just like you change locations. The impression left by these changes, mark the constancy of time. Time has always been a fascinating topic to me. I have come across several ways in which time is understood. The two I will talk about today is: task orientation labor practiced amongst the Lakota Indians, and labor measured by that of a clock, and secondly through a survey of the dreams that Einstein may have had. The second part are all ideas taken from: Einsteins Dream, a book by Alan Lightman. This book is a series of short fictitious essays, on what Einstein may have been dreaming while working on his theory of relativity. Great book, I would really recommend it.
One class project I had to complete while at U of I, was to research several aspects of a people as a whole. Our group was assigned Native Americans. Things that were to be included in the project were: the labor force, education, economy, religious aspects, culture, family life etc. My part in the project was to understand their economy. One article I came across explained how Lakota Indians in the Pine Valley Ridge reservation allocate their time between clock-based wage jobs and task-oriented forms of production governed by social relationships (Pickering, 2004).
When capitalism was brought about, there had been a shift from task force, to labor timed by the clock . For Lakota Indians, time is not marked by the clock, rather the passage of events, is their instrument of time measurement. Lakota Indians don't assign times for specif things, rather events themselves, and the relationships built on these events mark the time, mark the speed one should work at, mark the activity itself. This sort of task orientation, shows little demarcation between work and life. Production is not separated from necessities of life. All forms of production are integrally related to the social relationships that surround that production (Pickering, 2004). Clock time on the other hand, as that practiced by capitalist regimes, is transformed from a quality of human life into a quantified commodity removed from its social dimension. It becomes an economic variable used in exchange value (Pickering, 2004).
This journal article gave me a sense of sadness with the way our institutions have diminished our lives and our bodies to robot like living, in which our bodies are to be ordered around, deadlines to be met, life merely to exist, rather than live.
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Moving on to a different way of understanding time, Alan Lightman, writes a compilation of fictitious essays which portray Einstein during his time of writing the theory of relativity. The different essays, posit different worlds and time is constructed differently in each.
In one of the worlds, time is circular, so that people experience the same events, time and again, but without knowledge of doing so.
In another world he posits a society that has built houses on stilts on mountains. Brought about by the idea that the farther you are from the center of the earth, the slower time passes, and therefore to maintain their youth, they build these houses up high. These people have even convinced themselves that thin air like that in the mountains is good , with that same logic they take up spare diets, taking up only the most gossamer food. As a result this population has become “thin like the air, bony, old before their time (p. 24).”
In a different world, cause and effect are erratic. Cause does not necessarily presume effect. In this world a law has been made so that pistols may not be sold to the public. This world is ripped by the worst crimes. It seems as though these crimes have been misplaced in time, or is it that because of these crimes that the laws were made. Were the laws, action or reaction? People here live in the moment, for each act is an island in time. It is a world of sincerity, for it is not known which is cause, or effect, so all you have is the present. (p.30)
Yet, another world is described by two times. Mechanical time, and body time. Mechanical is rigid, unyielding, predetermined, while body time responds with an attitude of living accordingly to the rhythm of their bodies. In mechanical time, peoples body is merely a machine, it is a thing to be ordered rather than obeyed. “Where the two times meet, desperation, where the two times go their separate way, contentment” (p. 21).
In yet a different world, little happens from year to year, month to month, day to day. If one is to characterize time by the passage of events, then time hardly moved, but if these two are not the same, then it is the people who barely move (p. 36).
These were just a few of the many worlds and their view of time posited in the book.
As I said before Einsteins Dream is an excellent book, if you have a chance you should read it. Its short and easy to read. I have included a video of someones class project, based on the book. I have also included the website, that gives a book review, a video explanation of Einstein's Theory, and other interesting information.
Sources
-Einstein's Dream by Alan Lightman
-Decolonizing Time Regimes, Lakota conceptions of work economy and society. by Kathleen Pickering
- http://www.squidoo.com/einsteins-dreams
