X-Message-Number: 9311 Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 11:05:58 +0100 From: John de Rivaz <> Subject: Re: Speedups I read Mike Perry's bit on speedups with great interest, as this is a lot like time control. Most people have seen how "Q" in Star Trek can control time and make a lot happen in a short time, creating a sort of tributory to the line of time in the main plot. HG Wells wrote short story called "The New Accelerator" which expressed similar ideas, using a drug to make people move and think faster. The Internet itself gives a bit of time control into interactions, compared to a normal conversation. You can compose your reply in your own time, taking as long or as short as you like, and when you mail it you add it to the main timeline. The problem is that if you spend a hour answering email and you answer messages on cryonet, then you may be missing or neglecting to answer messages on say sci.life-extension. You could go back to sci-life-extension in your internet hour the next day on and answer messages there (now a day old) you may miss the current cryonet and so on until you gradullay become completly behind everything that is going on. Now if you could also link your bain directly to the computer, and also make you brain run fast, then you can interact with far more mailing lists and newsgroups. This is fine until everyone is doing it. That is probably one of the arguments against using dugs in competetive sport - there is no real purpose, because if everyone does it then nothing is achieved for the risks involved. No doubt accelerators will emerge, and people will think faster and faster as new technology emerges. Ultimately when physical limits are reached, the final limit will be clarity of thought. Those entities that have developed *ways of thinking* to get to results fastest will rise to the top, just as now those people whose brains run fastest on an electrochemical basis are at the top of the tree. -- ***************************************** Sincerely, * Longevity Report * * http://www.longevb.demon.co.uk/lr.htm * John de Rivaz * Fractal Report * * http://www.longevb.demon.co.uk/fr.htm * * Music I like - see homepage * ***************************************** In the information age, sharing can increase world wealth enormously, because giving information does not decrease your information. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR Fast loading, very few slow pictures Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9311