From a Quora post January 2016
Time does not exist as an inherent part of the universe. Time is a fabricated convenience that allows humans to categorize events.
For time to operate it requires the ability to record "events" in memory (internally in the mind or externally in the environment), to play them back and to interpret the results and distance between the play head the playback. This "distance" in memory from the recorded "event" to playback provides the interval that we interpret as time.
The concept is very similar to playing a tape. Future tape moves past the play head (the present) and becomes the past at a nice even clip and does not stop (or so it seems). We can read "past" parts of the tape. But only from the position of the play head which continuously processes "new" to "old" thus pushing the "past" farther away in terms of distance (and time)
However, I believe this to be incorrect. Instead of this linear progression, I believe (note believe) there is only one timeless now which exists as a single nondimensional point. Every "thing" originates from this point and accumulates in space, actually creating space itself. This accumulation seems to us (based on our labeling protocol of time) as being on a linear progression at an even pace.