we have reduced time to pure number


The commodification of time was made possible, perhaps inevitable, by the clock. As clock-time became central to social organization, life became "centered around the emptying out of time (and space) and the development of an abstract, divisible and universally measurable calculation of time." The collective objectification of clock-time means that now we all live according to it, for the complexities of our social interactions require such a continuum for their coordination -- despite the fact that "our mechanical way of repatterning time has led to a way of knowing it that is totally divorced from the real world. We have reduced time to pure number" (Aveni, 1995, p. 135).


Aveni, A. (1995). Empires of Time. New York: Kodansha.