Our brains keep two different measures of duration: one that corresponds to the actual passage of time, and another, "tidied up" version of the first, which gets delivered to our conscious minds like a debriefing to the President.
An example of this process in action is the following:
Say the wiring in your room is such that there is a 200 millisecond delay between the moment you flip the light switch and the moment the light actually comes on. After a while, your brain recognizes the pattern and edits out the delay. From then on, even though your subconscious brain still registers the 200 millisecond delay, you perceive the lights coming on instantaneously at the flip of the switch.
Then you move houses. In your new room, the real-time delay between switch-flipping and light-on is only 100 milliseconds. But your subconscious brain is still stuck in the old editing mode where it cuts 200 milliseconds off the time you think it takes for the light to come on. So it seems like the light comes on 100 milliseconds before you flip the switch!
The confusion this causes in your brain leads you to quickly recalibrate with the new pattern. But until then you get to time travel in a small way! I'd be interested to hear if anyone has actually experienced this phenomenon.
Man, brains are the best! Also, you are a science writer, you're not "trying"!
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