Scientist explains bizarre theory that means everyone is constantly 'living in the past'

There is a somewhat strange theory going round that we're always living in the past and never the present.

Given that human beings are creatures which only know how to time travel one way that seems like a bit of a stretch, but then again I'm not a scientist.

Since there's apparently a delay of about half a second between our brains deciding on something and us realising it, that means we're technically living in the past.

So goes the theory anyway, however much stock you want to put into it is up to you.

Meanwhile, Dr Chris Smith explained how this is supposed to work on his Ask the Naked Scientist segment on the radio.

An experiment recording brain activity found the delay. (Getty Stock Photo)

Just to be clear, he's not 'the naked scientist' because he's doing his radio shows in nothing but his birthday suit.

Instead, it's meant to be a reference to how the answers will strip away the complexities and provide answers which are simple to understand.

Anyhow, Dr Smith explained that a study from decades ago sought to find the difference between 'when a person decided to do something versus when they realised they decided they wanted to do something'.

This experiment gave people a fake remote control and a slideshow, and unbeknownst to the participants, it was actually their brainwaves which controlled the next slide.

When those monitoring the experiment saw a spike in brain activity which indicated they wanted to press the button, they found a gap of about half a second.

We are forever playing catch up with the world around us. (Getty Stock Photo)

According to Dr Smith: "We're all living in the past by between a third and half a second."

So every decision you make is being made slightly before you choose to make it, your thought process is ever so slightly behind the actions you perform as you interact with this world around us.

We're also always seeing things in the past as well since the slight delay in the time it takes for the light to reach our eyes means we're constantly observing the world how it used to be a minuscule amount of time ago.

Everything we're seeing is reflected light from a world that has already happened, and since it's so close to the way things are and the time delay is so short it's basically the same as seeing it how it is.

Hell, if we're going down this road then everything you hear is also on a slight delay too as sound travels and thus needs time to do so.