Simultaneity refers to two objects occurring or being represented at the same time. In a coeval context, it is also an acknowledgment that the other exists and persists concurrently with ourselves. It is more than what Elias and Burges (2015) have called a “singularity,” wherein all times occurring simultaneously are interpolated onto a single timeline. The distinction between “simultaneity” and “singularity” is similar to the difference between the universal and the uniform–simultaneity is the acknowledgement of a multiplicity, in a singularity, a single time seeks to dominate and absorb all others.
While global communications may allow us to be more aware than ever before of the simultaneity of events, ideas, peoples, and times in a given moment, this awareness, or impression of connectivity, runs the risk of recapture by capital to serve its own ends of synchronized development and market expansion. Simultaneity is neither synchronous nor singularity; rather it is multiplicity in time and its acknowledgment as such.
coevality 