From Daniel Dresner, Manchester, UK
“Time is an illusion; lunchtime doubly so,” observed Douglas Adams in 1978 and similarly proposed by Zack Savitsky in his article, “The illusion of time”. I wonder if – as we often do – we may learn lessons from how we perceive risk (31 January, p 28).
About halfway through my academic career teaching cybersecurity risk, I began to explain the topic as an exercise in intelligence gathering, and the adaptation of safeguards and responses to incidents, to reduce as much undesirable impact as is feasible. That feasibility may change as more intelligence becomes available, and that will happen over time. Perhaps we struggle with time when we are unable to articulate where to find a comfortable nexus point that encompasses the space we inhabit.
The passage of time becomes more comfortable and understandable as increased and better-quality intelligence – or raw information – gives us confidence in how to react.
