Medium-Duration Motion

Movement that unfolds over minutes, hours, or days—the commute to work, the slow crawl of a deadline, the gradual realization that the person you're dating is not who you thought they were. Medium-duration motion is the rhythm of daily life, too fast to be geological, too slow to be instantaneous, just right for watching paint dry or grass grow or a relationship deteriorate in slow motion. It's the temporal scale of human experience, where most of life happens and most of it is waiting.

*Example: "The medium-duration motion of his morning routine was carefully optimized: 12 minutes for coffee, 8 for shower, 15 for pretending to read the news while actually scrolling social media. When his therapist asked why he scheduled his life to the minute, he said it was the only way to feel in control of a universe that was, at larger scales, completely indifferent."*

by Abzugal February 14, 2026

Long-Duration Motion

Movement that occurs over years, decades, or centuries—the drift of continents, the erosion of mountains, the slow transformation of a person from eager youth to jaded adult. Long-duration motion is the realm of glaciers, grief, and gradual change, too slow to perceive in real time but undeniable when you look back. It's why your parents seem to have aged overnight (they didn't, you just weren't paying attention) and why the photo of you from ten years ago looks like a different person (it was, basically).

Example: "He didn't notice the long-duration motion of his own aging until he saw a photo from college. The person in the photo had more hair, fewer worries, and a smile that hadn't yet learned what the world was like. He stared for a long time, then went for a walk, aware that even as he walked, he was still moving through time, becoming someone else."

by Abzugal February 14, 2026

Long-Duration Motion Machines

The natural and artificial systems that move things across geological timescales—glaciers that carve valleys over millennia, tectonic plates that rearrange continents over eons, and human institutions that change so slowly they might as well be geological. Long-duration motion machines include the slowly shifting course of rivers, the gradual uplift of mountains, and the federal government, which moves with approximately the same speed and predictability as a continent, just with more paperwork.

Example: "She studied glaciers as long-duration motion machines, watching them inch forward year after year, carving landscapes with patience that humans cannot fathom. When her grant was delayed by government bureaucracy—another long-duration motion machine—she found the irony unbearable. The glacier, she noted, was faster."

by Abzugal February 14, 2026

Short-Duration Motion Machines

Devices designed to capture, measure, or create movements that happen in fractions of a second—high-speed cameras that freeze bullets in flight, strobe lights that reveal the wingbeat of a hummingbird, and the shutter button on your phone that you press a moment too late, capturing your friend's blink instead of their smile. These machines reveal a world that exists too fast for human perception, a hidden realm of split-second decisions, fleeting expressions, and the exact moment a water balloon bursts.

Short-Duration Motion Machines *Example: "He bought a short-duration motion machine—a high-speed camera that could record 100,000 frames per second. His first project was filming a water balloon popping. The footage revealed structures and patterns no human eye had ever seen. His second project was filming his cat knocking things off tables, which was less scientific but more entertaining."*

by Abzugal February 14, 2026

Medium-Duration Motion Machines

The vehicles, tools, and systems that shape our experience of movement over hours and days—cars, trains, airplanes, and the humble elevator, which transforms a three-minute stair climb into thirty seconds of awkward silence with a stranger. These machines have redefined human experience, turning journeys that once took weeks into commutes that take hours, giving us more time to be somewhere else and less time to appreciate where we are. The ultimate medium-duration motion machine is the treadmill, which lets you move for an hour and go absolutely nowhere.

Medium-Duration Motion Machines *Example: "His car was a medium-duration motion machine that carried him through two hours of traffic daily. He listened to podcasts about productivity while being completely unproductive, trapped in a metal box, moving at 3 miles per hour, surrounded by other metal boxes also moving slowly. He called it 'commuting,' which is Latin for 'this is fine.'"*

by Abzugal February 14, 2026