This white rooms sequence creates a sort of temporal conundrum that one could relate to Henri Bergson's rhythm of duration . On the other hand it may suggest temporal gaps with which we should fill our imagination. Other questions about the meaning of time are cast like broken shards from Bowman's shattered drinking glass and its implied delirium around the second law of thermodynamics. The possibility that entropy and the arrow of time are an illusion can open one to the potential of the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and special relativity's idea of spacetime. Twentieth century physics has presented us with many possibilities, but as Merleau-Ponty has pointed out, it is severely limited in that it is a science.
Science gives up something fundamental to perception.
It gives up living in things. When it gives up living in things, it loses their essence. Henri Bergson has described the subjective experience of time as a rhythm of duration . Special relativity has told us that time depends on one's world line. In other words, we experience time subjectively.