Great thought, Somik. I think of time as a technology of the mind, and like all good tech, it helps us abstract -- which has its strength and weakness. :) Biggest weakness of such tools is that gives us a false belief in our identity. Neuroscience now even tells us that our left brain and right brain are often at odds with each other -- so there's actually a parliament going on, within us, in every moment. :)

Parliament is a good metaphor. Demasio says that they haven't found any physical spot in the brain where the integration actually happens. This is really interesting, given that there are times when meaning does emerge. Does meaning then emerge on a substrate of nothing? Or is meaning itself an illusion? It is also interesting to note that there seem to be no studies on the interaction and messaging of cardiac ganglia with the "brain" in our head. The proposal that it is the timing of brain signals that gives us the appearance of integration is really intriguing and also raises more questions. How is it that striving for integration over long periods of time does seem to produce something? Maybe timing isn't that random after all, and if not, what is the entity that's making meaning?