Species-specific timescapes reveal how evolutionary pressures shape temporal perception across life forms
Original framing: “'Timescapes' may explain why animal species perceive events so differently” — Phys.org
Cross-cultural comparisons reveal that temporal perception is not a biological given but a cultural artifact. In Bali, the concept of 'jam karet' (rubber time) acknowledges fluid temporalities, while in Western industrialized societies, time is commodified into rigid units. These differences suggest that 'timescapes' are not inherent to species but emerge from ecological and social pressures, including the demands of agricultural cycles or industrial labor.
The 'timescapes' narrative reveals how Western science has historically framed temporal perception as a biological constant, obscuring the ecological, cultural, and structural forces that shape it.
Indigenous ontologies like Māori 'mauri' or Aymara temporal inversion challenge the assumption that time is a universal framework, while trickster figures like Hermes expose the absurdity of human-centric temporal standards. The flash-lag illusion and flicker fusion thresholds are not mere cognitive quirks but artifacts of evolutionary trade-offs and lab-based biases that prioritize diurnal, visually oriented species. Moving forward, solution pathways must center decolonized research agendas, transdisciplinary timekeeping, and ecological monitoring to reimagine temporal perception as a dynamic, co-evolved trait. This shift demands not only scientific innovation but also a reckoning with the power structures that have long dictated whose temporal realities are deemed 'normal'—and whose are dismissed as illusions.