Researchers say time is an illusion. So why are we all obsessed with it?

> "It's my belief that the forward passage of time is mostly a human construct"

This is the most mundane concept of time. Time is just causality. Clocks tick because atoms have an effect on each other. Using a computational model of the Universe, we could ask the same question in a different way, "how are the interactions of matter and energy being computed (and why is the limit the speed of light)?"

> In physics equations, time is used to keep track of the sequence of things as events unfold.

I thought equations where time invariant and worked with reversed time. I thought the article would get more philosophical, but it just scratches the surface.

Time is how we perceive the continuity of consciousness in the context of memory (past) and imagination (future). We are only conscious in the present moment and claiming it is an illusion is a denial of consciousness.

Somebody beat me to it (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33349736)

From Beat The Devil (1953):

Time. Time. What is time? Swiss manufacture it. French hoard it. Italians squander it. Americans say it is money. Hindus say it does not exist. Do you know what I say? I say time is a crook.

I'm not sure how well the film tracks with the real science of time, but "Arrival" turns my mind inside out each time I watch it. Even if it's not factual it challenges you to rethink what you think you think...about time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film)