Illusions of Time

"It's okay, shaved Michael doesn't exist, he can't hurt you."
Shaved Michael: "Or can I?"

Other KRplusrs: "Hey guys, sorry for the long break"
Michael: “Time is an Illusion”

14:52
I heard this story somewhere on the internet of a young person, who I think worked at some kind of retirement home, who was talking to a very elderly woman.
The old woman asked the poster something like “do adults tell you about time before the internet, and how it’s dangerous? And how they didn’t have it back in their day?”
The original poster, of course, responded yes.
The old lady then responded with “that’s what my parents told me about electricity.”
That may be my favourite example of these “illusions of time”. Me, writing this message on a computer that can fit in my pocket, could talk to someone who didn’t even have lightbulbs as a child.

This is the Pinnacle of VSauce. Rewatch was even better. Michael, are you a philosopher poet? The team around you must also be amazing. Massive contributions to our time through your brilliant videos over the years. Wishing you the very best!

I appreciate the fact that this man spent literally 130 days to make a joke that lasted 10 seconds.

Imagine being his daughter and asking a question about life

Never felt like this before in my whole life… i might need to take a walk to process all the things i've learned in this past 30 minutes. To have such videos online and for free is unbelieveable. Thank you for this mastepiece! For sure coming back to rewatch in some Time :)

That picture of the man smiling with the bowl of rice is now one of my favorite pictures ever. Idk why it brings me so much joy

Bro imagine if Micheal died and at the funeral he jumps ups at says "or am I" and goes to explain why circle aren't round

Theory: Michael shaves his beard right after he makes a video, and waits until it grows back to post another video.

"Make some time for time to control you.
Be bored, miss out, fall behind, lost track of time.
While experiencing only what your body can alone.
You might not have the time of your life, but you'll have more time of your life."
this one really hit me

One of many illusions of time is that I could've sworn this video came out only 2 years ago

Everybody gangsta ‘til Michael invents his own scientific terms

Everyone: Where's Michael?
Michael: Alright let's just shave my beard for a 30 second intro

I grew up in the 2000s and i lost my father a long time ago, and as a person in their 20s, i still feel like he's there with me whenever i see photos of him.

I've always been fascinated by the connection between our sense of smell and the triggering of memories.
After my mother died ,I bought one of her favorite colognes just so smelling it would make me feel like she was there with me

My worst nightmare would be me standing in a dark place when suddenly I hear "Hey Vsauce, Michael Here...How fast can you run?"

Michael without a beard makes me think he will try to steal chipmunks and force them to sing

Part of the reason songs from the 90s don’t seem as old to us is because by the 90s recordings became so clear and well balanced they don’t sound (like they were recorded) much different than those of today. The recordings in the 60s sounded sounded very different from those in the 90s because the technology was so primitive.

When I first tried VRChat I felt a strange sensation. Unlike the Internet VR gives presence: the feeling being in some space, a virtual space. And when you realise you share the space with people that live in actual reality far far far away from you, like thousand miles, it blows your mind. At least it does to mine. It's like finally experience what singularity does really mean, when a distance does not matter. But the time is not yet broken.

Michael is ridiculously gifted at presenting and explaining. He's an educational treasure.

Protagonist syndrome is real. I remember asking my mom when I was seven or eight, "There's got to be only one *me* in the world, right?" referring to myself. Because I could only feel my own emotions and experiences and no one else's, I couldn't quite grasp at the time that other people also had subjective experiences.

Speaking of time, I'm new to this channel, and I'm disturbed by how much time has passed without my knowing such a brilliant youtuber exists.

Beardless Michael doesn't exist. He can't hurt you.
Beardless Michael:

And when the world needed him most, he came back....

I just realized, in the time travel segment of the video, if people in the past viewed their present as a continuation of their past, then that explains why they had a tendency to scrap things that we today would've tried to desperately preserve in a museum, so many old locomotives, tanks, and cars were never preserved other than by photograph, and I always wondered why that was, but now that I understand their worldview on the present, it makes sense now that actively preserving the past is as recent of a trend as it. thank you Michael, you open my eyes to so many things I had only wondered about in passing

Can't say how many times I've had your channel recommended to me and just forgot to look it up but man this is an amazing rabbit hole of existentialism. Thanks for the good work bro

Don't even need to hit the bell, KRplus just knows everyone needs to see this video by default

Beardless Michael isn't real he can't hurt you.
Beardless Michael:

I'm blown away by this guy's thinking skills.

Watching your videos brings me this feeling of visiting the past
I used to watch translated videos of Vesaus before I was fluent in English when I was very young. the videos were editedly subtitled long before when KRplus didn't have captions or like and dislike, rather a 5 star rating systems.
I have recently started re watching all your content and felt like 12 years old again. Very interesting to see you again keep going I love your content you had a great impact on my personality I wish this comment makes it to you

Therapist: Beardless Michael isn’t real, he dosent exist
Beardless Michael:

This is like that meme
"I'm 8"
"okay that's fine"
"I'm born on 2013"
"Wait what wtf?"

Unbelievable. So much information, so well conveyed, and with so much passion. Vsauce, Michael, a real treasure for humanity!

wow! so glad I found your channel - absolutely brilliant and thought provoking. thank you.

My brain automatically read "1 year ago"
I had to do a double take to realise this came out yesterday

baby michael: he... h
parents: aww he's about to say his first word 🥺
baby michael: HEY vsauce, michael here

Insane how Micheal has been on the scene for ages and yet he is the one that does not change and pretty much nobody cares. Videos nowadays are flashy and fast, but Micheal is just same. Pure talent.

There's a 2014-born girl who I know personally. She entered the world a few short months after "Frozen" hit theaters. Even now, at age 18, I find it strange that I watched Frozen in theaters when I was a kid. In other words, I saw it in theaters when I was exactly her age.

POV: Psychotic Timetraveler shows you his sweater collection

Michael shaving his beard for the sake of making a 2 seconds point in the video- definition of determination

Wow the audio in this one was stunning
I'd love to see Michael make a museum, filled with objects both new and old, exiting stories, interesting facts, strange mental experiments and fascinating experiences. I'd especially love to have a room dedicated to these kinds of presentation, quick short bursts of content renewed monthly. Imagine getting completely immersed in one of these videos, in a dark room complete with high quality speakers, colored spotlights and a giant screen. That'd be an amazing experience for sure.
Michael, please, at some point you gotta

My sense of time is so fundamentally broken that this feels like a geometry lesson. Powerful hallucinogens can give you the impression of millennia in sequence, watching civilisations rise and fall. It's hard to keep track of what day or time it is - hard to remember ages, because I see people as a temporal spectrum constantly being re-expressed through a singular point, on a path that looks linear from the perspective of its own movement but is constantly forking out into various possibilities then collapsing into physical realities from an external view - more akin to a crystalline matrix than a straight line.

Therapist: shaved michael isn't real, he can't hurt you
Shaved Michael:

Vsauce formula:
"Hey! Vsauce, Michael here."
• Seemingly irrelevant fact/thing
• Big question
• Meat of the video
• Depressing conclusion
• Uplifting and optimistic take by Michael Stevens
"And as always, thanks for watching."

Gotta appreciate this man, making content you can rewatch over and over again💙

One of the most fascinating things for me in the last decade has been the discovery of memories of FEELING.
Do you ever remember not what happened or what things looked like or who said what, but how things FELT?
I mean, of course you do. I'm assuming that you do too. But it blows my mind to become conscious of it.
Because one of the things I realize is that you really can never step in the same river twice. Each time in my life, each era from months to years, to even days or weeks, feels completely different.
And so in terms of memory what rocks my world the most is when I suddenly get triggered back into the feeling-vibe of what it was like to exist as me long ago.
Not what happened.
Not how things looked.
But how they FELT.
The whole vibe of that time of my life.
I believe it's a completely unique concoction for every period and every time.
And most crazily, for every person.

The image of Michael shaved is so unnerving.

Kid : I'm 10 years old
Me : Oh cool, when were you born?
Kid : 2011
Me : *w h a t*

In my 60s, I not only feel as though time flies by, but I see the distant past and the future in a similar way. Now, a few hundred years, or even 1,000 years, does not seem that far away to me.

Love your content! It makes me think about things. What a concept.

Plot Twist: This video took so long to upload because he had to grow his beard back.

Ironically, this video itself is a great example of illusion of time.
For an example,
30 minutes of studying boring subject feels like an eternity.
30 minutes of Michael explaining feels like a brief moment.

Normal youtuber edits: cut & zoom in
Michael edits: cut & jump up into the frame like a summoned leprechaun

4:23 I love the picture in the bottom left

Mom: Beardless Michael isn’t real. He can’t hurt you.
Beardless Michael:

Ludopsychohyperchronoentropia - the distance in time between two consecutive Vsauce videos

I am at a moment in my life where I find myself newly retired, alone and pondering the reality of my life as I approach the end. This video put to words so much of what I am feeling and thinking about. Thank you!

Thanks for the shoutout Michael, keep up the good work.
With love,
The Hoodwinkers

“You watched a vsauce video?”
“Yes”
“What did it cost”
“My existence”

Imagine if VSauce took a 7 month break just so Michael could shave his beard and grow it back again

Love it! I watched your(and Vsauce2's) videos a lot a year before this

Man, every time I come back around to Michael greeting the channel, I just spend a few days smiling. Always brings me a little mood boost, and something interesting to think about.

Doctor: "Your baby boy is beautiful."
Michael, fresh out of the womb: "But first, what IS beautiful?"

This man shaved his entire beard for 1 gag that lasted a couple of seconds... then waited +100 days to continue the video
What a chad

This is the second time I watch this video like the first time it is brilliant excellent food for thought thank you for posting❤

5:50 I like how that sort of implies that if you were stuck, immortal, in a 1000 year time gaol and you where conscious the entire time, the moment you got out and started experiencing things again, it would bee like a 1000 year time skip - you would think you where trapped for maybe a year? Maybe a couple months?

*“Sir, I just asked what time is it”*

Me: *living normally*
Michael: *breathes*
Me: *considering my whole life and existence*

This is exactly why I’ve been keeping entries in a journal every day for 2 years

I love how Micheal is talking about temporal illusion in the time that everyone had it because of the flying years that seem to go by fast,smart from you micheal bravo.

"i am 130 days older than this michael"
so thats why it took so long for another vid

This video took so long to make because he needed his beard to grow

Being in my 50s now I am just amazed at how much time has passed between events I clearly remember and now. For example I was recently looking at a photo album and saw a photo of myself sitting on a pedal car that I got for Christmas one year. I rode that thing around seemingly forever, and when I saw the date - well let's just say it was good I was sitting down because I got that car for Christmas 1973, which means it was closing in on 50! years.

2 years ago but still a stellar video! Never thought I would be inspired to go be bored...

Holy hell, this _short short_ thing being described so accurately is *scary*

when the video ended I said: "damn its been 30 minutes already"
then I realized...

I know it’s stressful for people who adore you to yell “MORE” but we do need you.
Your mind, voice and ability to capture even a fraction of it’s processing is absolutely beautiful . *Thank you for being, Michael*. I hope you continue to create.

You never mentioned this, or anything like it, but time feels like it passed by even faster when you think about something fun you did with a loved one who has passed away.

Beardless Michael is the most terrifying thing I have ever seen.

The return of the king.

When VSauce pops up with a shirt adorned by cats hiding in a fern pot plant, your day just gets better.

Love this. Someone's certainly been reading their Kurt Vonnegut! Slaughterhouse Five and The Sirens of Titan are similarly excellent observations of this concept.

"Micheal without a beard doesnt exist. He cant hurt you."
Micheal without a beard:

Some random person: Excuse me sir, what time is it?
Michael:

The last three segments starting from chrono saunder, scared me. I understood it too well. I thought there’s something wrong with me.
I also thought i was the only one in my family to have this perspective. Until i found this video.
From my experience realistically, time flys when you’re filling up space in isolation or your perception that it went by quick because too much has happened in that period of time. When you count the years let’s say 2017 to 2023. Wow that’s old already once you count the years. Wow the video i’m commenting on right now is already 2 years ago.
When you feel time flys, that’s you reflecting on how much has changed. Therefore, giving you that illusion that the older you are it feels as if you know everything too well about understanding things that it becomes boring. As a child i didn’t knew much about the world. So i still remember things vividly from an adult brain, but barely from remembering back when i was 5-8 years old. As i had a conversation with my sister of what i remember when i was little lol. But these memories they were abstract and small details. I notice as an adult, it’s harder to remember things recently like a month ago or even yesterday lol.
What i notice about time? When i had yard work at the new house. It was insane labor and we dug holes to fill them up with concrete. To make a patio and a deck for our backyard. That whole entire day felt long and i enjoyed staying there at the new house. But i notice something that scares me. When you fill up time with contemporary distractions. You get the illusion that social media or technology makes it seem like time flies or when you watch an old video it feels and looks old as heck. Not until they smile or it brings colors. Then it feels timeless.
Me (22) “i remember in Feb 2019 i went camping with my family!”Someone i had a conversation with, (15) “wow that’s old i bet it was fun”
Me: “To me that’s not old but for you yes because you were younger.” The perspectives with age are different. perceiving time with numbers of it feeling not that long ago.
My experience and takeaway, don’t use social media too much. Do a lot of work or something productive. Time goes by slow that way. And lastly, live in the present. Everything you do will be nostalgia in the future.
If you found this thanks for reading btw. Just my experience.

That comment about _Semi-Charmed Life_ being as old as an Oldie Growing up hit me like a gut punch 🤜🏻 to the chest. Especially since I turn 40 in a week, and a doctor prescribed addiction to amphetamines to get me through this semi-charmed kind of life of living to work.

It’s funny because I was like “damn, 2016 was 5 years ago”

Bruh, Michael just stopped posting just to flex his beard twice.

I always have felt saunder.
I can feel it if I wanted to or just make it the way my brain normally intended it to. But chronosaunder is something which I have never thought of. Like imagine feeling like every person who ever lived was like a protagonist in the story of time.
His vids make me question life

If my teachers were like Vsauce I would learn about these topics all day I love this

VSauce is actively pioneering the genre of educational horror

Beardless Michael is the most cursed thing I’ve ever seen.

I always was under the impression that the first years of life were longer for us as the clockspeeds of our brains were faster. Similarily the short life of a fly I would imagine to go by as slowly as our lives and for them weeks to go by as as they watch us slow humans swing for them.

such an impactful use of word Vsauce, thank you for thinking a little bit more than the rest of us.

I remember sitting down to watch this video thinking "wow, a half hour?", and then, just like that Michael is saying "and as always. Thanks for watching". Yeah, time is strange.

Michael: "You can't do that to time that has already happened"
Me: "Oh, okay"
Michael: "Except you can"
Me: "Oh, okay"

This was an excellent work to watch and ponder.

I work in a nursing home, I often see elderly people old photos, some look old in black and white or yellow, others tho look so recent, the quality of the pictures look like the ones we have today but then I see my elderly patient when they were younger and it confuses me so much, like a saw a pic of my 94 years old patient in the 60’s she was dressed like in the 60’s movies with the hairstyle and everything, but the picture looked so recent kind of looked like a costume almost. I love looking at their photos and see how they lived, the black and ones convey the time frame but the good quality colored pictures are mind boggling, like what do you mean this pic was taken in the late 60’s?!? And how you were already old back then and still here today?!? Like how does it feel being alive so long?

False, Michael was never born. He just “appeared” one day fully dressed with a fully-grown beard