Speed of Mind / Speed of Time

[daniellos3]

I was on my bus today going home from school when i was looking out the window then i figured "hmm, why do i see the things i see at the same time. Always?" then i figured that the time on earth was stable but what if our brain was 10x faster. Would we see everything around us 10x slower..? Definitely not.. I know this sounds stupid and its a very irrational thought but can someone explain to me how this is stupid?

Edited October 26, 2009 by daniellos3

[Sisyphus]

What do you mean by seeing the things you see at the same time? You mean the same speed?

[daniellos3]

What do you mean by seeing the things you see at the same time? You mean the same speed?

 

Speed of time. I mean the speed of time on earth.. Its always stable.

[insane_alien]

speed of time is always one second per second in the local frame.

 

i think you might want to look up a thread on why time appears to slow down when you're scared(can't remember the exact title and couldn't find it using the search function, if someone else knows its location then there's some rep points in it for you if if you find it and post the link).

 

basically he is asking if our brains processed data faster, would we percieve time as running slower.

[DrP]

Fight time! During an accident, fight or time of extreame stress, you are supposed to sense time at a slower rate. How true this is or how it is explained I'm not sure - I'll have to search around abit, but it certainly seems true. In a car accident it "seems" as though you have time to think through everything and possibilitys go through your mind - you think faster, so time seems slower. I have experienced this myself, but I reckon it it probably just an artifact of the mind (obviously time doesn't actually slow).

[daniellos3]

speed of time is always one second per second in the local frame.

 

i think you might want to look up a thread on why time appears to slow down when you're scared(can't remember the exact title and couldn't find it using the search function, if someone else knows its location then there's some rep points in it for you if if you find it and post the link).

 

basically he is asking if our brains processed data faster, would we percieve time as running slower.

 

Yes exactly.. Does that sound stupid? Or does it make sense?

[DrP]

OK - this isn't what I ment, but I did see this on TV once where the guy tried to speed his perception: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4741340.stm

 

This link is complete BS http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4741340.stm it gives a pretty crap explanation but I posted it anyway.

 

Still haven't found anything concrete. but will keep searching.

 

Wiki has very little about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Motion_Perception

 

 

I have experienced it myself in a minor crash - I would guess that it a big adrenaline shot which speeds your thinking and heightens your perception giving the false perception of time slowing like in the Matrix.

Edited October 26, 2009 by DrP

[insane_alien]

Yes exactly.. Does that sound stupid? Or does it make sense?

 

not only is it not stupid, it does make sense and does infact happen during fight or flight response situations. such as the aforementioned car crash scenario.

 

it is important to realise that it is only the perception of time that alters, not the actual passage of time though.

[DrP]

I suppose then, as in the experiment with the flashing digits - it should be possible to learn to controll this and make it happen at will?

[insane_alien]

no, not really. its just a side effect of the massive doses of adrenaline that get pumped into your brain. it could be replicated by a hypodermic injection of adrenaline though. or just stick yourself on a roller coaster.

[daniellos3]

This is incredible i thought i was being stupid posting this and was considering aborting it..

[iNow]

This might help:

 

 

RjlpamhrId8

[DrP]

Type "slow accident time adrenaline" into google. There are no concrete experiments I could find in my brief search but thereis alot of discussion about it.

 

Cheers I-Now - I've seen that vid before - my first link is an article about it.

[gre]

I have experienced this myself, but I reckon it it probably just an artifact of the mind (obviously time doesn't actually slow).

 

I've experienced this myself due to a car accident when I was 15.

 

 

Greg

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Merged post follows:

Consecutive posts merged

Time perception is an interesting topic.. Does time pass faster when you're younger, or for different animals? Is it possible to know the answer to these questions?

Edited October 26, 2009 by gre
Consecutive posts merged.

[swansont]

The speed at which your body/brain processes information does affect perception. For instance, the Pulfrich effect — dim light gets processed more slowly.

 

http://blogs.scienceforums.net/swansont/archives/1246

[Mr Skeptic]

The mind is a crazy thing. Please remember that our mind constructs our perceptions, which in some cases does not correspond to reality. Likewise, our memories are not stored as a "video" but rather in little bits that we reconstruct in a way that makes sense. It seems that when frightened we lay down richer memories, which then take longer to analyze and also appear to be slower. There was a recent article in New Scientist regarding our perception of time, which answers some of your questions. However, there is still plenty of research in that area.

 

timewarp-how-your-brain-creates-the-fourth-dimension.html

[DrP]

Does time pass faster when you're younger, or for different animals? Is it possible to know the answer to these questions?

 

Longer periods of time, like weeks, months years seem to go quicker as you get older. As a todler, a year seems like forever as it is 30 to 50% of your entire like. It still seems like a long time as an 18 to 20 year old as it is 5% of the entire time you have been alive. Before you know it you start thinking "where did those years go?!?" What the hell happened to 2009? it's nearly over... (it has been 2.6% of my life so far!). However, this is obviously differet to the stress induced perception of time slowing during a crisis.

[daniellos3]

Longer periods of time, like weeks, months years seem to go quicker as you get older. As a todler, a year seems like forever as it is 30 to 50% of your entire like. It still seems like a long time as an 18 to 20 year old as it is 5% of the entire time you have been alive. Before you know it you start thinking "where did those years go?!?" What the hell happened to 2009? it's nearly over... (it has been 2.6% of my life so far!). However, this is obviously differet to the stress induced perception of time slowing during a crisis.

 

I wish we could just stop time.. then we wouldn´t have to worry about a single thing... we would have all the time in the world. Literally... But what makes time go on? If we can find that out then we might be able to control the time..

[DrP]

But what makes time go on? If we can find that out then we might be able to control the time..

 

Used to be a wound spring - usually batteries these days though.

[bascule]

what if our brain was 10x faster. Would we see everything around us 10x slower..? Definitely not

 

On the contrary, I would say we would certainly see everything 10x faster

[dr.syntax]

I was on my bus today going home from school when i was looking out the window then i figured "hmm, why do i see the things i see at the same time. Always?" then i figured that the time on earth was stable but what if our brain was 10x faster. Would we see everything around us 10x slower..? Definitely not.. I know this sounds stupid and its a very irrational thought but can someone explain to me how this is stupid?

 

REPLY: But I have heard from people I once knew that something very much like what you just described happened to them after taking LSD. That while on such a trip as they used to call it, the way they perceived sights and sounds seemed to be happening in slow motion, not always, but some times. Some claimed this would often happen during sexual experiences. Of course I would never have had first hand knowledge of such things. It was only that for a time there many people were experimenting with such things as LSD and it was often a topic such people would discuss. So, because I was young and around such people I would hear about it. ...DS

Edited October 27, 2009 by dr.syntax

[toastywombel]

Electronic signals travel from neuron to neuron at about 200-400 milli-seconds according to a study from John Hopkins University using a PET to study electrodes traveling along the surface of the brain.

 

It could be argued that an increase in adrenaline could cause the mind to fire these thoughts off quicker, but another argument is that the brain utilizes more of its available 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses.

 

Either way your brain could possibly process more information in a given time when stimulated by adrenaline. This may cause time to slow down, only relative to the observer though, because the observer's brain is processing much more data than that observer is usually used to.

 

Of course this is speculation and there is no scientific research to prove this.

 

One question I have is if (somehow) the brain used a fiber-optics system that allowed the mind to process data at or nearly the speed of light would that allow for an infinite or nearly infinite amount of thoughts to be processed in a given time.

 

This would have many implications, such as making time slow down relative to the observer drastically. Maybe this is more appropriate for a new post but any initial thoughts?

[bascule]

I would say the same is true of any minds running on a faster "substrate" than the human brain.

 

If you can speed up the rate at which the brain operates, you'll see a corresponding increase in the rate at which the mind perceives time (or rather, relative to the observer, time would seem to slow down)

[infinitesolid2]

perception is everything. if the brain is faster, everything would apear slower.

Edited October 30, 2009 by infinitesolid2