X-Message-Number: 8527
Date: Wed, 03 Sep 1997 09:48:34 +0100
From: John de Rivaz <>
Subject: Re: Speed

In article: <> Thomas Donaldson writes:
> 
> Finally, some comments are appropos here about speed. Unfortunately, we
> don't yet have computers which operate at the speed of light. Yes, they
> do operate faster than us, in most cases (what about our visual
> pigments?). But to simply bring up speed begs the question entirely.
> We evolved our speed of neural conduction to be an OPTIMUM in the
> environments we had to deal with. We designed computers to do things
> for which speed was important.
>

I should have thought that humans would evolve to operate faster and faster, 
as there is an evolutionary advantage in speed. Those TV fantasy shows about 
superheros who can always outwit the enemies in fights against 
ridiculous odds attain beleivability if one assumes that the hero somehow 
operates faster than everyone else. Maybe someone knows whether they are 
filmed with everyone performing the actions slowly and then the replay is 
merely speeded up.

In sports I should have thought that a competitor to whom time appears to 
move slowly (ie verything else is slower than his brain can operate) would 
find it easier to hit or catch balls moving fast.

-- 
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