Can Time Slow Down? 444
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Does time slow down when you are in a traffic accident or other life threatening crisis like Neo dodging bullets in slow-motion in The Matrix? To find out, researchers developed a perceptual chronometer where numbers flickered on the screen of a watch-like unit. The scientists adjusted the speed at which the numbers flickered until it was too fast for the subjects to see. Then subjects were put in a Suspended Catch Air Device, a controlled free-fall system in which 'divers' are dropped backwards off a platform 150 feet up and land safely in a net. Subjects were asked to read the numbers on the perceptual chronometer as they fell [video]. The bottom line: While subjects could read numbers presented at normal speeds during the free-fall, they could not read them at faster-than-normal speeds. 'We discovered that people are not like Neo in The Matrix,' Eagleman said. 'The answer to the paradox is that time estimation and memory are intertwined: the volunteers merely thought the fall took a longer time in retrospect'."
i thought time slowed down enough for a 1st post (Score:5, Funny)
*shakes* fist
Newsflash. (Score:2, Insightful)
And in other news: Water is wet.
Film reel at 11.
Re:Newsflash. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Newsflash. (Score:5, Insightful)
That was never "obvious". (Score:5, Insightful)
The Church declared that it was flat. Despite the obvious fact that it was round.
Re:That was never "obvious". (Score:5, Informative)
Re:That was never "obvious". (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That was never "obvious". (Score:4, Informative)
Actually? No. Galileo met resistance from the church because of his belief in a heliocentric model, but he was not arrested for it. Far from it, in fact. He was a good friend of the Pope and had his ideas seriously considered for a time. Eventually he was instructed by the Pope to keep his writings in the theoretical realm and to present both sides of the argument.
Where Galileo eventually tripped up was that he used the character of Simplicus to represent the Pope's opinions in his writings, effectively calling the Pope a simpleton and fool. This didn't go over very well with the Vatican and he stood trial for heresy. His sentence was actually one of imprisonment, but (perhaps as a last gesture from a former friend) his sentence was reduced to house arrest.
As much as I disagree with the Catholic Church's actions both past and present, I do wish that people would stop using Galileo's arrest as an example unless they well and truly understand the history behind the affair.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The church never said it was flat! (Score:5, Interesting)
Two monks did, though. Very convenient that they did, because it gave a man with an axe to grind (whether it was against religion in general or the Vatican in particular) a way to discredit the Catholic Church.
Read Late Birth of a Flat Earth, one of the essays in Stephen Jay Gould's book Dinosaur in a Haystack. I'll not spoil the story for you by quoting any more than this: the supposed Dark and Medieval consensus for a flat earth - is entirely mythological.
(One thing missing from the article. No seafaring nation could ever have believed that the world was flat. Ships fall below the horizon. Distant lands fall below the horizon. Any sailor afraid of "falling off" would be ... well ... a farmer.(
HAL.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
So modding him "troll" or "idiot" would be appropriate.
Re:Newsflash. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Newsflash. (Score:5, Interesting)
The speed of light in a vacuum may be constant, but once other effects start getting involved the picture changes. I think this was an interesting experiment, though I'd like to see it repeated under the same and different conditions. You can't prove anything scientifically unless the experiment is repeatable (by other people).
Re:Newsflash. (Score:4, Informative)
Whoops -- a simple mistake but a big one (like saying that you have to factor prime numbers to break encryption). No, all travel at any speed causes time dilation. The effect simply isn't significant unless you're travelling at a significant fraction of the speed of light.
Of course, to be pedantic it's all relative (and that's where the equations get wacky).
Re:Newsflash. (Score:4, Insightful)
My point? While you are correct in pointing out that any travel will cause effects, but significant effects are observed only for a significant fraction of the speed of light, you didn't mention that the original poster was even more wrong than you said since faster than light speeds cause time to reverse, not to go slower (though, obviously, your velocity at that point also changes how quickly time reverses).
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Lol. Relative to what? Using the word "true" implies some kind of universal reference frame.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Newsflash. (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Time does seem to move differently there. I want one of those test boxes to try out on myself.
Since that article was written, they've started working on the next generation. One of the songs they teach children in elementary school now goes in part "Be on time, be on time, that's the true Filipino Time
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Ahh, but it can. Crank up that falling airplane to near the speed of light. Before it hits the ground, we all will be one second older than the occupants.
Re:Newsflash. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Newsflash. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
like that god-awful meeting
with the infinite list of slides
full of acronyms that come dangerously near meaning
yet somehow collapse into a cunning heap of mis-direction
just in time for the next annoying, distracting transition
delivered by a prozac-addled nitwit
who has repeated his farce to the point of belief
time has been seen to crawl
like a drunken slug.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Short answer: No (Score:4, Funny)
dupe (Score:4, Funny)
Re:dupe (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Stupid Question (Score:5, Funny)
Turns a matter of hours into a matter of weeks.
Hmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Hmmm... (Score:4, Informative)
If I read the summary correctly, they have shown (to a limited extent) that EVEN our perception of time does NOT change during such events. What they concluded therefore is that our MEMORY is more to blame for compositing (AFTER the fact) an apparent slowdown or speedup of time during the event.
FTA:
So, the posters so far have been stating the obvious, but seem to have missed this point. The researchers were trying to TEST the long-held conventional belief that our perceptions do slow down or speed up during certain special events. They seem to have come up with a startling result - our perceptions stay pretty much the same, our later MEMORIES seem to be edited after the fact to make it seem that we perceived time differently during the event. Brains are so devious. *cackle* *rubs hands in glee*
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I expect this experiment is spot on and here's why. Knowing things are going to be ok sitting on your ass in
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
DMT is responsible for dream states, so DMT altering a potential memory isn't that far-fetched. Now, tell me this, how do you explain the lack of real time compensation when there are people out thre that in a huge brawl just weave their way thru EVERYONE and still kick the shit out of their target? (Witnessed this at a club in Memphis, guy goes nuts, crowd goes nuts and flees, guy going nuts just slips
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Using as a metaphor the eyes as a video camera with some "shutter speed" and your memory being an analog tape that records events, all they tested was if the shutter speed of the eyes increases under stress. What they didn't address is if the memory tape gets sped up while recording - making things seem, at least in hindsight, to have taken a long time.
If the shutter speed is the same but the tape goes faster, you would stil
Re: (Score:2)
Seconded... (Score:2)
I didn't "recall" it slower, it was happening slower AS I experienced it.
I don't think the story is done on this. Time is perception and it see
Re:Seconded... (Score:5, Interesting)
About 15 years ago my friend Rick and I were out deer hunting and both of us got big deer (Missouri corn fed ones) and we were hauling them out of the valley on a 4 wheeler. They were tied on the front carrier.
There is one point where the edge of the bedrock stick out and it is always wet and icy in that vicinity. I told Rick that we better walk the 4-wheeler out in this area but he is one of those large barrel chested men with mammoth arms and he just put his hand on the front of the 4 wheeler and held the front down as i was cautiously driving up the steep slope. I had gone about 15 feet when he slipped on the ice and let go and the 4 wheeler immediately flipped backward throwing me down 15 feet onto my back with a 4 wheeler and an additional 450 lbs of deer tied on falling toward me.
Suddenly everything moved in very slow motion as it came towards me ( just as you experienced with your shot) and I merely lifted my legs up and positioned them and had plenty of time to catch the 4 wheeler's seat with my legs and toss it about 20 feet away.
To my perception all of this took about 10 seconds to accomplish. To Rick's eyes it happened in a flash and he could not comprehend how my reflexes were so quick... in reality they were not. I simply was on a different timeline than he during that moment.
I agree that Time is only a perception.
Re:Seconded... (Score:5, Funny)
Lunch time, doubly so.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Hmmm... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I also am unclear as to what they think they're testing. They're faced with the question, "Does time really seem to slow down?" and in response they test, "Are people able to see and process things faster?"
It's not clear to me what that the test answers the question. Does time *actually* slow down, and in a Neo-like state we can stop to look around while bullets are flying at us? Of course not. But do things *seem* to move more slowly? It seems so.
Re: (Score:2)
The question is whether that apparent slowing is something you experience at the time and can take advantage of (i.e. if time slows to one-third speed, can you read numbers or dodge bullets three times as quickly?) or if it's an illusion your memory retroactively i
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The question is whether that apparent slowing is something you experience at the time and can take advantage of (i.e. if time slows to one-third speed, can you read numbers or dodge bullets three times as quickly?) or if it's an illusion your memory retroactively imposes.
Still, I think those are multiple different questions:
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
What they test was weather you can read numbers faster during high-adrenaline moments. That does NOT test how fast you perceive time to pass. The maximum speed with which you can read numbers flashing by is dependent on multiple things:
1) The speed and method the eye itself uses to capture "frames" of image data.
2) The speed of any low-level image "pre-processing" that may occur outside of the brain (i.e.: in the eye or th
A shocking result (Score:5, Interesting)
The first time, I was attacked by a soccer hooligan, who smashed a bottle on my head with no warning, from behind. I remember turning round and seeing the thug waving the broken bottle - but everything had gone into slow motion. I could literally read every move he was going to make and counter it, with no apparent effort on my part, matrix-style. After I'd disposed of his bottle, I threw him around, then I played with him a bit without hurting him (much). I had the sense that I was far back, watching it all.
Afterwards, I was quite shocked at what had happened - I am not a fighter, I am really quite a wimp. Thinking about it later, it made sense to me, that some kind of fight-or-flight instinct had kicked in, allowing me to react instinctually much faster than normal, with my normal consciousness somewhat suspended.
The second time it happened, I was in a car that went into a 360 spin down a hill, eventually crashing into a lamp-post, totalling the car. Again, I felt calm, I could see everything that was happening as if in slow motion, but there wasn't anything I could do, so unlike the fight situation, I can't judge whether this perception had any practical effect.
I find it interesting that you can't count numbers any faster in threatening situations - but I would wager that only certain, survival oriented abilities are accelerated in threatening situations. I wouldn't have been surprised if the ability to read numbers was actually worse in those situations! More research is clearly needed...
Re:A shocking result (Score:5, Interesting)
Happened to me, too. I was in the passenger seat of a car when I noticed a flare lying on a stretch of dark highway. My friend, the driver, hadn't noticed it. I was wondering what the heck it was doing there when all of a sudden, ahead in the car's headlights, I saw something in the road.
What went through my head next was something like: "Oh man this isn't going to be good am I going to die now? I better have my seatbelt on at least yes I do that's good then too bad it's only a lap belt I'm probably going to hit the dashboard man that thing looks like it's made out of reinforced steel that's going to hurt I wonder if I should try to brace myself on something ahh I'm involuntarily turning my head does that make me a wimp? anyway oh well I guess I've done everything I can do to get ready it's been a pretty good run here goes nothing."
A split-second later our '72 Chevy Nova smashed straight through two cars, which had been parallel-parked across the two fast lanes of the freeway, at 65mph. (The driver had never seen the cars, either -- I think he maybe should have been wearing glasses.) We tore the two cars in half -- ripped their backs off and kept going -- blew out all four of our own tires, and yes I did indeed smash my face up against the steel reinforcement of the dashboard. Other than that, we were fine. I peeled my baseball hat off the shattered glass of the windshield and we got out of there, moments before another car smashed into the back of our wreckage at speed and turned the Nova into a crumpled-up cube.
All I could think was: "Cooooooolll."
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I dunno... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Oh my gooodness! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Though I agree with the above poster - if you know the situation isn't actually dangerous, it probably doesn't invoke quite the same adrenaline rush as when you actually think your life is in danger.
Re: (Score:2)
A more interesting question (Score:3, Interesting)
What would be the problem with metric time for example?
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A more interesting question (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You don't say what you mean by "metric" time, but my guess is that you're asking about using a temporal analog of the current systems of linear distance, weight, volume, etc.
If that's what you mean, the problem with that is that our current time system doesn't just measure one thing. It tries to measure the rotation of the earth in one day, and then it tries to measure the time it takes to
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
What I mean is something like this:
By the way do the 12 months in a year have anything to do with the 12 hours in a day?
Re: (Score:2)
Obviously for the same reason that there are 660 feet in one furlong, 128 fl.oz in one gallon, or 14 pounds in one stone. But remember that choosing 10 as a base multiplier between units is just as arbitrary, it just happens to be more convenient when our number base also happens to be 10. If I were to choose, I would rather change our numeri
It makes me wonder (Score:2, Insightful)
I have been in a few car accidents in my time, and I can say that time really does seem to slow down in that moment. I don't know if it's just the way I'm remembering those moments in time or if, at that exact moment, I really did feel like time slowed.
I wonder if the experiment mentioned was skewed by the fact that th
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. In fact it can be shown that our conscious awareness of decision making takes place after the decision is actually made. This is known as Libet's Delay [consciousentities.com].
Sorry guys... (Score:2)
Time doesn't slow down but our perception does? (Score:5, Interesting)
I dunno.... (Score:5, Funny)
Sure time can slow down.... (Score:2)
.... Oh wait, you meant, can our perception of time speed up during accidents.
What's the point? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
When in a stressful event, does our perception of time actually slow down in such a way that we can experience more? The implication being that our brain would apparently be working at a faster speed.
They say no. We think we saw time slow down, but our mental faculties were not accelerated at all.
Slow down?!? What?!? (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, though, I see it as a matter of perspective. When I was younger, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" seemed to be the mantra because it seemed to take forever for things to happen. Maybe it's because I have adopted more patience over the years, so the waiting isn't as noticeable.
Re:Slow down?!? What?!? (Score:4, Interesting)
My favorite theory about that:
at age 5, 1 year = 1/5 of your life
at age 15, 1 year = 1/15 of your life
at age 40, 1 year = 1/40 of your life
and in our heads we measure time relative to our lives.
Well, I like it, so it's true.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It doesn't bode well as if you extrapolate this phenomenon out to the age of 70 then the last decade of your life will go by in what seems like a month.
I attribute this effect to the amount of time your brain has e
The elapse of time (Score:2)
Research or Disneyland ride? (Score:2, Funny)
Invalid conclusion? (Score:2)
Y'know... (Score:2)
Understatement of new Millennium (Score:2)
Wow, good to hear that things like world hunger, oil dependence, and disease have been solved and there is time for experiments of this caliber. Now that the question of if we are in fact all Neos in Matrices is also settled, the world can live in peace!
Re:Understatement of new Millennium (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Only testing the preprocessor. (Score:2)
IMHO they're only testing the visual preprocessor speed, in a situation where the expected effect is bringing online more processing power and/or modifying the task scheduling and priorities for better response time on normally background tasks that have become life-critical.
You failed to test me! (Score:2)
Time Frequently Slows Down (Score:2)
I personally can attest that time slows down in business meetings, lines, traffic, and at chick flicks I'm forced to watch.
We discovered that people are not like Neo... (Score:2)
What kind of research is that?
In any case none of them made the jump the first time anyway...
OMG! It actually does work.... (Score:3, Funny)
And then I get this message!
Slow Down Cowboy!
Slashdot requires you to wait longer between hitting 'reply' and submitting a comment.
It's been 0.2 seconds since you hit 'reply'.
Chances are, you're behind a firewall or proxy, or clicked the Back button to accidentally reuse a form. Please try again. If the problem persists, and all other options have been tried, contact the site administrator.
They didn't suggest time actually slowed... (Score:2)
Their results suggest that during such
Personal experience says otherwise. (Score:2)
Survival reaction? (Score:2)
I don't think that time slows down I think that you temporarily speed up and your perception of time is skewed.
Re: (Score:2)
The Matrix thing was a bug... (Score:2)
Wrong experiment. (Score:2)
They should repeat the experiment, this time with the chronometers calibrated to legible speed, but give the subject a half-dozen or more of them to read the numbers off of at once.
Although I rather suspect that this phenomenon may be more geared toward processing and reacting to data relevant to the situation (ie, that which will help you
Time distortion is a hypnotic phenomena (Score:5, Interesting)
What usually happens is that the boring minutes seem to drag, and the pleasurable moments pass too quickly. One can use hypnosis/etc to switch this around, so that boring hours can seem to pass in minutes, and the good times seem to last forever. Bandler addresses this in his Design Human Engineering [designhuma...eering.com] system. Milton Erickson, M.D. (psychiatrist who specialized in fixing people with hypnosis) also used time distortion in his work, iirc (and was the original inspiration for much of the NLP founders' developments). Any good book on hypnotic phenomena should cover time distortion too...
Whew! (Score:2)
Therefore humans are not being used as living batteries for a race of mad robots. Come on, isn't that what they REALLY wanted to learn from the study?
Only proved tachypsyche is not cognitive (Score:3, Interesting)
"I think, therefore it exists?" (Score:2)
Invalidating this experiment... (Score:3, Insightful)
This isn't a measurement of perception, but of the characteristics of eye refresh rates under stress.
I would have loved to have been on the IRB Board that oversaw this study, and read the protocol...
Completely absurd experimentation method (Score:5, Insightful)
Danger is what it's all about, or perception of danger. The adrenaline rush of the free-fall experience is only there because subconsciously you're still somewhat afraid, but the whole mind isn't involved in the fear.
This would be like saying "Can people exhibit super-human strength under extreme stress?" (eg the "mom lifts car off of baby" stories) and testing it by saying "ok so pretend that your baby is under the car and lift the car up ok". Sure buddy.
Next waste of time and money....
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If time perception only changed when you actually thought there would be danger involved, roller coasters would be far less interesting.