Illusions of Time

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

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

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!

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

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

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

Imagine being his daughter and asking a question about life

Everybody gangsta ‘til Michael invents his own scientific terms

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

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

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

"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

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.

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

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

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.

*“Sir, I just asked what time is it”*

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

The image of Michael shaved is so unnerving.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

POV: Psychotic Timetraveler shows you his sweater collection

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

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

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

Ludopsychohyperchronoentropia - the distance in time between two consecutive Vsauce videos

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

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?

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."

The return of the king.

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

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

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

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

This explains why the first month of lockdown felt like it lasted 3 years but the subsequent 3 years lasted two weeks.
Basically, March 2020 had active election drama, civil unrest at every turn, the beginnings of an economic downturn, _and_ no one had ever seen a global pandemic and its consequences. However, during the next few years, we had already seen normal life (even with the added politics and anger), so after such a cataclysmic shift, when our brains expected more novelty, and when it didn't get it, we just blasted through time like nothing new happened.

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.

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

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

I love the thought that future me is looking through this moment of me watching this video

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

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

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

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.

growing up with no tv is way more weird than growing up without phones

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

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

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

Im in 8th grade. I was in 4th when covid 19 started. And looking back 4th grade was the only year i did the worst in. I was just too emotionally distracted with friendships. But then in 5th when we were able to go back to school everything changed. Nothing significant ever happened in grade 5, 6, 7. But looking back on all years before 4th is so full and i can remember so many vivid memories from then. This is why the fact that the amount of time between grade 8 and 4 is the same as 4 and kindergarten blows my mind so much. Because nothing happened in 2020 and beyond. THIS is why i default to counting years only up to 2020

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

Michael without his beard is literally a cursed image

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

I wonder how that man would feel to know how significant his silly picture would be to some people hundreds of years later.

Michael is definitely the protagonist of this universe , we are just NPCs

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.

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

I'm watching this in response to realising I can't imagine or recall memories in motion, it's one of the scariest things realising what you understand isn't what everyone else sees as 'standard'

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

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

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.

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.

Someone: What time is it?
Michael: It's now..or is it?

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.

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.

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.

How the fuck does he keep outdoing himself?!

okay 2021 seems to start right. Michael remembered his KRplus password

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

This is why mindfulness meditation is so powerful for many people. Yes it takes time to practice it and start feeling the positive effects but in return someone meditating will perceive the new mindful world they live in at a slower rate.

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

Your beard growing skills are unmatched

Teenagers now could feasibly sit in their room wearing heelies, listening to early Linkin Park music on an iPod Shuffle while they text friends from a refurbished flip phone, saying they feel like they were born in the wrong decade, and that concept genuinely scares me, since I did the same with spiked hair, Daft Punk on a walkman, and a landline phone, wishing I was born in the 1980's.

Whenever I have summer breaks or just a very long break, I think of time and realize, time set for different reasons and occasions isn’t gonna be that important, nor memorable.
Because:
After completing “goals” like school, work, relationships, getting money to a place to live..you’ll just sit there, in a timeless space and probably wonder if everything that you ever did in your life, was worth it.
Sooner or later you die but never know when, until you feel your soul slowly leaving the body. Like A vehicle, that finally shuts down.
(So try to enjoy it, and never stop fighting. Enjoy whatever little detail of the life you have left on this earth, and don’t abandon your body just yet.)
- There is more, but you’ll never know it if you don’t take the chance.

Michael is a master of bringing you to the brink of existential crisis, and then pulling you back just far enough so that you've gained wisdom

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

Bro knows how to make me keep watching his videos. An existential crisis

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

At last, *He* has returned to enlighten humanity once again

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

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.

Yesterday, my mom and I were driving through the neighborhood in which I was raised, and she remarked about the state of the roads and how in the world they seemed so unmanaged. It occurred to me that when my parents moved into the house I grew up in, it was 1974...almost fifty years ago now. It occurred to me immediately afterward that when I and my friends were riding our bikes on those roads (seemingly all day, every day) during the '80s, the same amount of time prior to that would've been the 1930s...before either of my parents were even born, and thus not unlike the very-rundown streets I knew near my grandmother's house. And that is ULTRA weird to think about, for some reason.

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