I was wondering, what would have happened had time been comparable to money. One could save time by reducing spending. One could save today and use it tomorrow.
Where can I save my time? Answer: In a Time Saving Account or Time Current Account. There would be Time Banks under the ambit of a Time Bank of India (TBI). I could invest time in fixed deposits and recurring deposits to reap the benefits of compounding in a long-term scenario. I could create an FD of my casual leave and earned leave. I could invest my time in mutual funds, in equities to hedge against time-inflation (which happens when the demand for time increases and supply decreases). There would be a Bombay Time Exchange: people could trade in Time through the exchange. There would be Time Insurance and Time Bonds. There would be Time Credit Cards. People could take a loan from time banks. For example, take a 20-hour short-term loan for examinations.
Here, one question arises. How can we save time? The regulator, TBI, would play a decisive role in this. For every work the TBI could specify a certain time limit.
If you finish it within that time, you save. If you exceed the limit, that much of time will be debited from your time saving account. The tracking could be done through a DNA-linked central server of the TBI. The watches would be different for each person depending on the saving, which would be linked to the current time account. Students who have saved more time in the bank could withdraw it and use it to prepare for examinations, for instance.
If I save two hours of day-time today, I could use it in the evening to delay the sunset for me. Wouldn’t that be beautiful? Then winters would be warmer for time-savers. Summers would be darker and cooler for newly wed couples as for them dark is beautiful. They could achieve this by saving more night time and using it to delay the sunrise. The experience of day, night, the seasons and the weather would be different for everybody depending on their time-saving potential.
People wouldn’t save photos and videos; instead they would let the time duration be saved. They could relive moments by unlocking the time duration. The concept of a time machine would become real. People would gift time in functions. People would wish for more time in their life. The person who has more time would be richer. There could be a mechanism for Time-Rupee conversion on the lines of inter-currency conversion. Everyone could get equal opportunity to save time and become richer.
Actually, time is way more safe and secure than money as money can be taken away at gunpoint; however, nobody can take away your time. The situation would be reversed. Gangsters would rob your money only to convert it into time. Time would be more precious than gold.
The downside is that to save on time, people would travel faster, ignoring the safe speed limit, which would raise accident rates. But this can be regulated with some penalty of time.
Moreover, everyone would have spent time in an economical and efficient way. This is TimEconomics. Though it is absurd, I wish it would come true one day.
tushar.nitrkl@gmail.com
