History Main / TimeDissonance

* Shows up in the DresdenFiles - the older (and hence more experienced and magically powerful) wizards were all born a few centuries ago, and haven't adapted to rapidly
changing technology. This is not a good thing.

* Dr Manhattan of ''{{Watchmen}}'' experiences time in a non-linear sense. It can make it difficult to have a conversation with him as he either already knows what you're going to say or has not yet heard something you already told him.
** On the other hand he has no practical way to make use of that, as he already knows what he is going to answer without being able to change it, being basically at every point in his life simultaneously. He describes it as being a puppet that can see its own strings.
** The really weird thing is that he apparently can know that he will learn that something is so without actually ''knowing'' that it is so. Specifically, [[spoiler:he tells Laurie that in a minute she'll tell him she's been sleeping with Dan, then seems surprised when she mentions it a minute later]]. No, Laurie doesn't get it either.
*** No, no, this is quite simple: He also knows that he will be surprised, so he's surprised, he even tells her that. He's just acting surprised.
**** Alternatively, he actually was surprised ''in that moment.'' But in the moment beforehand when he told Laurie she was going to tell him, it was more like a memory.

*** A variation is that [[AllTrollsAreDifferent trolls]] ''believe'' that they perceive time backwards, reasoning that if you can see the past, it must be in front of you, whereas the future is invisible and therefore behind you.
**** It's based on the similar perception of a Native American tribe, the Quechua.
***** It's also shared by Amy, the signing gorilla in Michael Crichton's ''Congo''.

* There was a species in ''TheLongestJourney'' that truly saw time differently.
** Translation for any Venar: There will have been a species in ''TheLongestJourney'' that are going to truly see time differently.
*** Clarification for non-Venar tropers: Venars perceive all of their life simultaneously. They are aware of everything that has happened to them and will happen to them, from their birth to their death, as if it happened now. Save for a period of time, soon to come, where their perception will be clouded and hidden, which upsets them quite a deal. (And given that they're never upset or surprised by anything ever usually, this means something.)

* In Larry Niven's Draco Tavern Series the different rates of different types of chemistry results in vastly different metabolisms and perceptions of time. Helium 3 lifeforms have such a slow chemistry that electronic communication is the only way ti talk to them and even a simple conversation takes decades. Their movement is just as slow. While lifeforms that evolved ON stars live on the other end of the scale living less than a year regard carbon based humans as equally slow. For non-chemistry forms of the trope,in the story Limits aliens advanced enough to have immortality decide not to give humanity the secret because our brief lives have resulted in humans advancing much faster than other longer lived lifeforms, and more importantly discovering things they have not.

* In Larry Niven's Draco Tavern Series the different rates of different types of chemistry results in vastly different metabolisms and perceptions of time. Helium 3 lifeforms have such a slow chemistry that electronic communication is the only way ti talk to them and even a simple conversation takes decades. Their movement is just as slow. While lifeforms that evolved ON stars live on the other end of the scale living less than a year regard carbon based humans as equally slow.For non-chemistry forms of the trope,in the story Limits Aliens advanced enough to have immortality decide not to give humanity the secret because our brief lives have resulted in humans advancing much faster than other longer lived lifeforms.

* In Larry Niven's Draco Tavern Series the different rates of different types of chemistry resut in vastly different metabolisms, Helium 3 lifeforms have such a slow chemistry that electronic communication is the only way ti talk to them and even a simple conversation takes decades. Their movement is just as slow. While lifeforms that evolved ON stars live on the other end of the scale living less than a year.For non-chemistry forms of the trope,in the story Limits Aliens advanced enough to have immortality decide not to give humanity the secret because our brief lives have resulted in humans advancing much faster than other longer lived lifeforms.

* Shows up in the DresdenFiles - the older (and hence more experienced and magically powerful) wizards were all born a few centuries ago, and haven't adapted to rapidly changing technology. This is not a good thing.

** [[AC: Death]] in ''{{Discworld}}'': [[AC: Humans have so little time. Why spend it in a field screaming?]] (He's trying golf.)

** [[/folder]]

[[folder: Death ]]
in ''{{Discworld}}'': [[/folder]]

[[folder: Humans have so little time. Why spend it in a field screaming? ]]
(He's trying golf.)

-->-- ''Joyeux Noël''

If they truly ''do'' conceive of time differently, expect deep [[{{koan}} philosophical sentiments]] and quite a bit of sadness or detachment, and if not superior and condescending, they'll often marvel at how humans [[HumansAreFlawed rush around and accomplish so much]] in their [[PunyEarthlings puny lifespans]]. Other times, beings who are literally outside of time will experience time non-linearly, seeing effect precede cause and move laterally to create parallel timelines.

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*** No, no, this is quite simple: He also knows that he will be surprised, so he's surprised, he even tells her that. He's just acting surprised.

* Marvel's Quicksilver experiences this. As he tells Doc Samson, what kind of attitude do you think ''you'd'' cop if everyone else seemed like that one guy who's really slow in the supermarket checkout line?

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** [[AC: Death]] in ''{{Discworld}}'': [[AC: Humans have so little time. Why spend it in a field screaming?]] (He's trying golf.)

***** It's also shared by Amy, the signing gorilla in Michael Crichton's ''Congo''.

---->"...change and growth is not in all things and places alike. For the Elves the world moves, and it moves both very swift and very slow. Swift, because they themselves change little, and all else fleets by: it is a grief to them. Slow, because they do not count the running years, not for themselves. The passing seasons are but ripples ever repeated in thelong long stream. Yet beneath the Sun all things must wear to an end at last."

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---> '''Saul:''' Listen, these people, they have no concept of time. They'll say to you "wait a moment," and three, four hundred years go by, VOOM!

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* In a state of adrenaline-charged excitement, a person's perception of time [[BulletTime seems to slow]], as their brain's analysis of their surroundings accelerates and alertness to detail is increased. Experiments in which first-time bungee jumpers brought stopwatches along on their jumps have demonstrated this, as the jumpers could easily read the fraction-of-a-second digits while they were plummeting, that would've been an indistinct blur under normal circumstances.

* There's a song by a group callled Jim's Big Ego that is set to the point of view of [[SuperSpeed super fast]] superhero The {{Flash}}(Barry Allen if you were wondering) in which he laments the fact that because he's so fast, his sense of time is ruined because he can do so much more that anyone else in the same amount of time.

* The page quote by Jim's Big Ego is part of a song from the point of view of [[SuperSpeed super fast]] superhero The {{Flash}} in which he laments the fact that because he's so fast, his sense of time is ruined because he can do so much more that anyone else in the same amount of time.
** This is also canon for Marvel's Quicksilver. As he tells Doc Samson, what kind of attitude do you think ''you'd'' cop if everyone else seemed like that one guy who's really slow in the supermarket checkout line?
*** If you compare the Flash and Quicksilver, it turns out that, while Quicksilver is somewhat understandable, he wouldn't be capable of whining if he knew what The Flash had to deal with, because while Quicksilver clocks in at 800 M/pH, Its implied The Flash could go faster then ''[[RefugeInAudacity the Universe]].''
*** Quicksilver has his speed ''all the time.'' He has to actively think to operate on human terms. The Flash has to turn his powers on.
**** However sometimes the Flash's powers will kick in involuntarily, often when he is bored, which is basically the worst time to have them anyway.

***** It's also shared by Amy, the signing gorilla in Michael Crichton's [[Congo]].

***** It's also shared by Amy, the signing gorilla in Michael Crichton's ''Congo''.

***** It's also shared by Amy, the signing gorilla in Michael Crichton's "Congo".

**** It's based on the similar perception of a Native American tribe, the Quechua.

* Turned UpToEleven in "Dragon's Egg": the [[StarfishAliens cheela]] experience time a million times faster than humans do. They go from a pre-industrial civilization to having explored the galaxy with FTL starships in ''twelve hours''.
** This plot was loosely adapted in episode of Star Trek: Voyager.

* ''{{Digimon}}'': A major part of the storyline in the first digimon series. During the many weeks the digidestined spent in the digital world, only seconds passed by in the real world. For example, the group arrive back at their summer camp with their digimon just mere minutes after the freak snowstorm which preceded their departure for the Digital World. This is apparently abandoned by the third series, but then put back in the fourth series, Digimon Frontier, when Takuya (who finds he has transformed into a digimon)finds himself transported to the day he left for the digital world.

** The [[GrandTheftMe Sarah-Prophet]] specifically tells him, [[BootstrapScenario "The Sisko was necessary."]]

** Actually, that doesn't really make much sense. What makes more sense is considering that as one ages, the less impact a day, month, year, etc., has on one's existence. A year for a 5 year old is incredibly long because they see a year being about 20% of their lives, an incredibly significant period of time for anyone. But for a 50 year old, a year is just about 2% of their lives and as such doesn't hold as much significance to them.
*** How can we claim to know how a fruit fly experiences time?
* Nell Gwyn would appear to be a case in point. Dying in 1687 at the age of 37, she seemed to have lived a whole life by then. She completed a 7 year acting career by the age of 21, was the mistress of Charles II, had two sons by him and outlived him, before dying after two strokes.

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**** It's based on the similar perception of a certain Native American tribe, by the way (does anybody remember the name?).