LD Deutsch
Myths + Models of Time & Timelessness

In her new essay, Myths + Models of Time & Timelessness, LD Deutsch investigates the human relationship to Time. Placing the leading scientific and Western philosophical models of Time in conversation with ancient Greek and Chinese mythological models of Time, Deutsch traces the correspondence between them, revealing the ways our intuitions about Time have shaped our interpretation of its phenomena across disciplines. Deutsch then turns the conversation to the phenomenon of synchronicity, attempting to chart how the connections between scientific and mythological views of Time might speak to instances of meaningful chance.

Questions explored in this essay include: Do the past and the future exist in the same *real* way that the present moment does? Why is the leading scientific model of Time one in which the future has already happened and all of Time exists in a spatialized block, especially if we experience Time as something that flows and changes with our free will? Does Time exist at all? How do we make meaning with regards to the passage of Time? And how does the way we think of and experience Time reflect our own human nature back to us? Through asking these questions, Deutsch presents a portrait of Time that is truthfully textured and ever-evolving.

(This essay is an expansion and reimagining of Deutsch’s first essay with us, Mythologies of Time and Timelessness, and serves as a further evolution of those ideas). Featuring 40 new illustrations by Sam Klickner.