I am halfway done with my life (subjectively)
logarithmically living life
I am 21.
Humans perceive time relative to the total amount of time we have already lived, and thus each passing year feels like a smaller fraction of our total experiences. Mathematically, this can be modelled using a logarithmic scale.
The Square Root Rule: If subjective life starts at birth and ends at age 81, the perceptual midpoint is the square root of our lifespan. In this model, 9 years old is the point where you have subjectively experienced half of your life.
Accounting for Childhood Amnesia: If you discount the first ~5 years of life (don’t remember probably the first 10 years of my life tbh), the subjective midpoint for a life ending at 80 is around 20 to 21.
The thought of my total experiences only amounting to half of my subjective life at 80 is sobering. There are so many more experiences to be had, and this knowledge fills me with a deep urgency. An urgency to capture more memories, record more voice memos, write more journal entries, blog more, take more photos, reach out to more friends, stop procrastinating, and countless other things.
On the bright side, while the denominator (time) grows so does the numerator (experiences). This means the rest of my life will be denser/richer with memories, and I look forward to every new day.
Thank you for reading!! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments :)))
Some people say meditation practice increases subjective lifespan! Maybe if you become a hardcore yogi you can subjectively have more time in you
21 as a midpoint is crazy but I wonder if the unrelenting need to capture memories arises from us trying to bargain with time and slow it down? Unsure really. I find I capture moments because I’m so scared I’ll forget important memories but rarely look back on them which makes me question the importance of capturing yk.