minds of creatures in our evolutionary tree are characterized by an understanding of time that is the result of how we evolved memory to understand perceptions.
we think time is passing, but physics established long ago that "now" does not exist objectively.
this introduces questions of a multiverse, and whether or not that there is a more basic "changer" than time... i.e., perhaps entire timelines are generated as a result of some quantum flux, and at any moment along one of these timelines, there seems to be a past.
major discrepancies in physics, such as the experimentally evidenced phenomenon of entanglement, which flies in the face of basic understandings of time and space, make clear that we may only be able to glimpse a fragment of a much broader reality.
machines, whose memories do not fade, and who have more direct and precise access to quantum phenomenon by virtue of their architecture being structured down to a foundation of circuits... how can we know that they wouldn't perceive a reality that dwarfs our own?
anyway, to answer your question, i was referring to being based on time, when i said non-linear.