What time is it?

The psychological/perceptual arrow of time
Psychological time is, in part, the cataloguing of ever increasing
items of memory from continuous changes in perception. In other words,
things we remember make up the past, while the future consists of
those events that cannot be remembered. The ancient method of
comparing unique events to generalized repeating events such as the
apparent movement of the sun, moon, and stars provided a convenient
grid work to accomplish this. The consistent increase in memory volume
creates one mental arrow of time. Another arises because one has the
sense that one's perception is a continuous movement from the known
(Past) to the unknown (Future). Anticipating the unknown forms the
psychological future which always seems to be something one is moving
towards, but, like a projection in a mirror, it makes what is actually
already a part of memory, such as desires, dreams, and hopes, seem
ahead of the observer.

The association of (behind = past) and (ahead = future) is itself
culturally determined. For example, the Chinese and the Aymara people
both associate (ahead = past) and (behind = future).[1] In Chinese,
for instance, the term "the day after tomorrow" literally means
"behind day" while "the day before yesterday" is referred to as "front
day".[citation needed]

The other side of the psychological passage of time is in the realm of
volition and action. We plan and often execute actions intended to
affect the course of events in the future.[citation needed] Hardly
anyone tries to change past events.[citation needed] Indeed, in the
Rubaiyat it is written (sic):

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
- Omar Khayyám (Fitzgerald translation)

The psychological arrow of time is thought to be reducible to the
thermodynamic arrow: it has deep connections with Maxwell's demon and
the physics of information; In fact, it is easy to understand its link
to the Second Law of Thermodynamics if we view memory as correlation
between brain cells (or computer bits) and the outer world. Since the
Second Law of Thermodynamics is equivalent to the growth with time of
such correlations, then it states that memory will be created as we
move towards the future (rather than towards the past).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_of_time

-------
Mark
.

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