The Hummingbird’s Hour: Fractal Resolution and the Scale-Dependence of Rationality

Human experience unfolds at multiple temporal scales, yet cognitive science typically assumes that rationality operates on a uniform timeline. This paper develops the concept of fractal cognition into a formal theoretical framework, proposing that variation in neural temporal resolution – the rate at which the brain samples sensory information – alters both the density of lived time and the structure of reasoning built upon it. Drawing an analogy to the coastline paradox, in which measured length increases with the granularity of measurement, the argument holds that perception measured with a finer temporal ruler produces a longer, more detailed subjective world. Evidence from psychophysics demonstrates large individual differences in critical-flicker thresholds, temporal-order judgments, and multisensory binding windows, while neurophysiological research reveals scale-free 1/f dynamics indicating nested timescales of brain activity. Integrating these findings, this article re-situates bounded rationality and advances the thesis of scale-bounded rationality: what appears irrational or over-interpreted at one temporal scale may be coherent at another. The model generates empirically testable predictions linking sampling rate, subjective duration, and reasoning style, and it reframes cognitive diversity as variation in temporal granularity rather than intellectual capacity or ability. Ultimately, understanding cognition as fractal in time offers a unified account of how different minds inhabit the same second differently.