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tmarshconnors · 2 months ago

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Ticking Obsession

by Thomas Marsh-Connors | Angry British Conservative Blog

Let me tell you something about myself that’s perhaps not immediately obvious I have a deeply unhealthy obsession with time. Not in the generic "I hate being late" way. No, my fixation goes far beyond punctuality or calendar apps. Though that is true too. This is something that took root in my mind back in 2006 and has since woven itself into my thoughts, habits, even how I see the world.

It all started with a BBC documentary. Not just any documentary, mind you this was the Time series hosted by none other than Dr. Michio Kaku. If you’ve never seen it, do yourself a favour and hunt it down. It’s a beautiful, mind-bending series in which Kaku an American physicist and master science communicator goes on a global journey to try and define, understand, and chase after that elusive thing we call time.

I was only a teenager at the time, but something about that series rewired my brain. Maybe it was the haunting realisation that time is both constant and completely out of our grasp. Maybe it was Kaku’s hypnotic, calm delivery a man who speaks of quantum mechanics like it’s poetry. Either way, from that day forward, time wasn’t just a part of my life. It became the part.

Naturally, I devoured everything Kaku ever wrote. Here’s a list of his books I’ve read and if you’ve got even a faint interest in science, technology, or the future of humanity, I strongly recommend you dive into them too:

Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century (1997)

Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos (2004)

Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel (2008)

Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 (2011)

The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind (2014)

The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth (2018)

The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything (2021)

Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything (2024)

Each book is a small detonation in the brain. Kaku has this rare gift: he makes impossibly complex theories about the multiverse, wormholes, and AI feel like gripping thrillers. But at the core of it all whether he’s talking about bending space-time, merging consciousness with machines, or building Type I civilisations time is always present.

And that’s the paradox, isn’t it? Time is everywhere and nowhere. We live inside of it, but we can’t see it. It drives every second of our lives, yet we barely understand it. It’s ticking constantly whether we choose to notice or not.

Since that first encounter in 2007, I’ve noticed time shaping the very architecture of my thought. I overthink minutes, waste hours worrying about the past, and have endless philosophical arguments in my head about the future. I obsess over history, write about nostalgia, and collect clocks yes, literal clocks. I time my coffee breaks. I remember whole days in terms of the exact hour something happened. It’s borderline manic, I know. But at the same time, I wouldn’t trade this obsession for anything. It keeps me grounded, aware, awake.

We live in a culture that is increasingly casual about time wasting it on meaningless distractions, pretending we have infinite tomorrows. But time is the one currency we can’t counterfeit. And once you become aware of that really aware you start living with urgency. Purpose. Gratitude.

So, if you're like me slightly mad and deeply curious give Dr Michio Kaku’s works a read. Rewatch that 2007 BBC series if you can. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll understand why I’ve never been able to escape the ticking echo of that first documentary.

Time isn’t just a dimension. For some of us, it’s a religion.

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