The brain is a product of natural selection, and was thus “designed” to survive in a harsh and continuously changing world. As it turns out, one of the best ways to prosper in such a world is to be able to predict what will happen in the future, and when it will happen. So the brain is both an anticipation machine and a machine that tells time. It quantifies the passage of time across a range of over twelve orders of magnitude—from the tiny difference in the time it takes a sound to arrive at the right ear versus the left ear, to the ability of some animals to anticipate the seasons.
