Past, present, and future may all exist at once.

Past, present, and future may all exist at once. 

Here’s why your experience of “now” might be a mental glitch.

What if time doesn’t actually move? Philosopher Adrian Bardon proposes that our sense of time “flowing” is just a mental glitch—a cognitive construction rather than a feature of the universe itself.

 In his latest book, Bardon draws on physics and neuroscience to argue that our perception of time is not about time itself, but how our brains interpret change. Much like we don’t see infrared light or hear ultrasound, we don’t perceive time directly—we manufacture the experience internally.

This idea aligns with modern physics. Einstein’s theory of relativity shattered the concept of an absolute present, showing that time is relative depending on your speed and position. 

Today, physicists often describe the universe as a four-dimensional “block” where past, present, and future all coexist. In that model, nothing actually flows; instead, we experience different slices of reality as if we’re flipping through the frames of a film. Bardon suggests that our brains impose the illusion of movement—just like they assign color to wavelengths or pain to injury—giving us a narrative of time that feels real, but might not be.

Source: Bardon, A. (2025). "What is time? Rather than something that ‘flows,’ a philosopher suggests time is a psychological projection." The Conversation.