Why does time feel the way it does? Toward a principled account of temporal experience.

Abstract

Time flows-or at least the time of our experience does. Can we provide an objective account of why the conscious present encompasses a succession of moments that slip from now to then-an account of why time feels flowing? Integrated Information Theory (IIT) aims to account for both the presence and quality of consciousness in objective, physical terms. Given a substrate's architecture and current state, IIT's formalism yields a cause-effect structure that fully accounts for experience. Here, we show that unfolding the cause-effect structure of directed grids can explain why time feels flowing. We argue that the conscious present feels flowing because it is composed of phenomenal distinctions (moments) that are directed and related via inclusion, connection, and fusion. Time, on this view, is not a process in clock time but a structure specified by the system's current state. We conclude by outlining implications for the psychophysics, philosophy, and neuroscience of time.