\u201cAnd with that,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS, \u201cwe come to a perspective that suddenly makes many things logical.\u201d<\/p>\n
He placed his hands back on the lectern, as if a second part were now beginning, and in fact it began.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us imagine the whole history of humankind as a single day,\u201d he said. \u201cTwenty-four hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
He raised his head as if he were looking at a clock.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd our modern life \u2013 the way we live it today \u2013 that only happens right at the very end. In the last minute. You could say: since eleven fifty-nine p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n
He let the number hang in the room. It was precise and at the same time poetic, like a date punchline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means,\u201d he continued, \u201cour body, our nervous system, our psyche \u2013 none of that was developed for smartphones, office chairs, constant availability of sugar and stress. It was developed for something else. For a life that for a very long time looked very different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans thought: The Magic Mountain, esteemed reader, dear reader, was a novel of time; and here stood someone turning time into a clock. He made it small, he made it understandable, he made it into an image. And images, Hans knew, are dangerous: they allow one to believe one has understood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll take you along,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS \u2013 and here, imperceptibly, he slipped into a language that was less \u201cyou\u201d and more \u201cwe\u201d; no longer doctor to guests, but human to humans \u2013, \u201cinto three large segments of this clock. Not as a textbook. But as an image that shows us why today we so often feel\u2026 miswired.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said \u201cmiswired\u201d and smiled, as if he knew that the word is a diagnosis that at the same time excuses and accuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince twelve oh one a.m.,\u201d he said, \u201cfundamental pillars have been emerging without which we would not be able to function today.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now he began to count, and this counting was not dry, but rhythmic, almost like music, as if the music room had after all gotten its way.<\/p>\n