The time of an elephant, the time of a mouse, and the time of a modern man

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  • ゾウの時間・ネズミの時間・現代人の時間

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Abstract

<p>  If we regard the time of animals as the period of cyclic events such as cardiac cycles, the speed of time is proportional to the energy consumption rate per body weight. Such time, which I call the metabolic time, tells us that it varies between animals and during growth and ageing, and that animals can manipulate time. It even leads us to the imagination that animals “create” time with the use of energy. Such cyclic times of animals seem to derive from the strategy with which animals “aim” to continue their lives “perpetually” through the periodic renewal of the body. The analogy of the metabolic time is applicable to the speed of the modern social life that is accelerating with the use of cars and computers. Because such machines consume large amount of energy the social time also becomes faster by energy consumption. The social time is the environment in which we live in and thus I call it the time environment. It is getting faster and faster. It seems to have exceeded the limit our body and mind can follow, which situation I call “the destruction of time environment”, that might cause the dysfunctioning of the higher brain activities.</p>

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