Different Place, Different Time

Time is a human idea and the argument can be made that it does not exist in nature, only in the human mind. What is time but the ever changing present? What is the past but human memories and accounts of events, people and places long gone? What is the future but our intentions and imagination of what events, people and places will be?

This is a photo of a hair tonic salesman in New York City, 1936. Examine it well.

click to enlarge

Never again will this scene or ones like it be seen, especially today. It's like a completely different place, a different world. Why? Some might say that time has changed the way we live and think, but it's not time at all since time does not exist outside the human condition. Things would change even if time did not exist.

So, the question is, what factor changes human society (among other things) if that factor is not time?