Is it possible people see the world at different speeds?

I have been thinking about this for a few days now. What we actually see is fully dependant on brain performance, light coming in getting processed etc. So surely how somebody sees the world is dependant on the performance of their individual brains.

We all know pathways in the brain can deteriorate aswell as strengthen, now im not talking about old people needing glasses etc but more about sportsmen, racing drivers, boxers, baseball batters etc. All these rely on lightning reflexes and hand eye coordination, You could probably included martial arts in there aswell.

Is it possible that the top sportsmen, or even down to the more average ones have actually developed the ability to see things (or maybe just focus on something) earlier/quicker than the average person would?

I've see that some people don't even see some periods of times , too.

I think size has a relation to your perception of speed. I think I remember seeing something on the discovery channel that stated "To an elephant a mouse looks to be zooming around at an incredible pace, but to the mouse the elephant appears to barely be moving." Could have something to do with larger animals having longer neural paths an what not so it takes longer for the info from their eyes to reach the brain.

In terms of ability, there are many people capable of truly extraordinary things not only sportsman, but artists, business professionals and so on.

Within the context of the OP, i would believe that professional athletes have an awareness of their chosen sport/activity that is either supported by a natural affinity to the action or through years of hard training.

If you were to train your eyes and your mind, similar to a baseball player at bat, you could perhaps master an art of slowing down time in your minds eye or develop a special awareness of were things will be and when they will happen.

This topic has interested me for a long time and i had hope to master a similar skill in which i would be able to more practically control my mind.

Its far out there i know, but just like a athlete undergoing training, i believe i could do something similar.

There are some videos that show extraordinary hand and eye co-ordination in Bruce Lee for example. I do not know if this can be developed or if it is something you must be born with.

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


Everything is up to the processing power of the brain, that was my first thought when I saw your thread on the main page, and surely you mentioned it.

As far as I know, the part of the brain that process information the fastest is the part that controls the eyesight.
It it was possible to train the brain to use that part in processing other information, that would probably make it easier to make decisions at lightning speeds.

I would believe that people that for example can calculate extremely big numbers immediately uses this part of the brain more for this than others .

reply to post by Iamschist


When it comes to amazing hand-eye coordination, I do not think many people can beat Mr Bob Munden.

To counterbalance excellent response time, let me propose this.

I know someone who perpetually lives in lag. There is a significant delay for them to process information from TV, a conversation, etc. I am shocked she can even drive a car. It takes her a long time to process the conversation to get a response. It is the strangest thing I have ever seen.

Personally I dont buy into the people are 'born with it' thing. Research is showing that people with extraordinary 'talents' such as top sportsmen, those amazing violin/piano players you see have achieved those abilitys through what they call 'delibrate practice'. Im not sure what they mean by thatbut I am currently reading a book about it, havent got to the part where they tell you what it is yet lol.

As for the size thing I agree with it but surely the dfference in size would have to be pretty extreme, I know flys see in a sort of slow motion world of vision thats how they can fly about so fast and not hit things. I think our solar system is a good analogy for this we are spinning round at hundereds of miles an hour and things are flying around us at thousands of miles an hour yet we barely percieve it. But if there was a giant who had our solar system on a table in his house he would see everything flying about at top speed.

reply to post by mideast


That isn't hard to believe.

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


We all see it at the same speed.

Some just process more of the available information and quicker.

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard

Lightning reflexes in baseball or in a video games don't necessarily translate to higher intelligence or higher typing speed or better identification of enemy aircraft in war. I think you're right that some people run at different overall speeds, but you need to keep in mind that there're many roads we travel on and so there're many different kinds of speeds. The only overall speed I can think of is just a running average of all speeds that a person exhibits in their numerous body parts and functions. But there's no present way to measure something like this, so we can't say who's the fastest.

It's nature and nurture, not either/or. But people can be short in one or the other or both. But since it's hard to know which we're short in, it's best to just try try try and work hard. If you can't make it and you've tried your hardest and you can afford to quit then quit. No use in overdoing it.

If you haven't tried your hardest then you're prematurely quitting. How do you know when you've tried your hardest? If you've tried your hardest you'll never have excuses when you quit.

This is part of a documentary by Michio Kaku about time and our perception there of.

I am kind of in a hurry, but just want to say that yes, you can, how? I don't know. Well sort of do.
It is like sitting down at a computer and doing something, time zips by. Withdraw from the computer and time slows down a little. It is your attention that is actually speeding up and slowing down.
On the flip side of that, when someone is in an accident or very scary situation, the mind acts much quicker, and time slows down so that you can react. It is actually a perception of the mind.

Just a quick thought that popped out when I read the title...ok, am in a hurry, time is speeding up on me so I gotta go!!

Peace!

Batters in baseball rely on body language. They have made a decision intuitively before the ball leaves the pitchers hand in the big leagues.

As for people visually processing faster than average, most certainly yes. I notice flashes between commercials that many don't even see. It depends not on the acuity...shape, size, structure, etc..of the eye, but the neurobiology and neurochemistry of the individual.

To be more precise, it's not that they see things before they happen, it's that they see things with a higher shutter rate. The things are happening objectively at a steady rate, but the rate at which some visually process is faster than the norm.

I read once about a man who had a tumor in his brain. To this guy, the world was speeding by, but anyone looking at the guy would see him moving in slow motion. So I would say yes, people can see time moving at different speeds, it all comes from the brain.

I actually watched a video about this not too long ago on Vsauce.... it basically states that we can never be aware of the "now" because it takes time for information to get to our brains. Here it is:

Originally posted by rEVOLuti0nary
I actually watched a video about this not too long ago on Vsauce.... it basically states that we can never be aware of the "now" because it takes time for information to get to our brains. Here it is:

Yes!!

This is what I was getting at

Hi Idonthaveabeard its nice to see you,

I agree with your premise that people see/process reality at different speeds. Having experience in sports and martial arts I was taught how to slow things down in my mind. So many things happen at the same time it is virtually the only way to see the flex of a muscle to know which direction a movement is being made. In diving(springboard or platform) one must slow things down in the mind in order to spot the water or block hitting the board/platform(obviously impossible when doing a reverse). Having learned this I have also noticed how fast some of the slowest creatures like snails and turtles actually move. Their forward movement is slow by perception but the muscles are actually moving very fast both in the movement but also the shift in their balance etc.

It is actually very possible, to both accelerate and reduce your perception of time (which some say is only a perception itself because it doesn't really exist). I have done this many times over the course of my life and I'm sure you (yes YOU reading this) have too.

Have you ever seen someone do something that looked to be either extremely lucky or maybe even impossible? One of those "I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it" type moments. Have you ever heard someone say "Those few seconds seemed like an eternity" or "It just happend so quick, I just reacted"? Have you ever felt any of these ways? Those are prime examples of a persons perception of time slowing down or speeding up.

One day on my way to work I stopped to get some gas. I pulled out of the gas station and was making a left on a yellow light of a busy intersection when literately half way through the process of making the left my prehiprehal vision saw a brown car speeding straight toward my car. As soon as I saw it I knew what was going to happen but there was nothing I could do. I thought "That car is going to-" and then BOOM, it happened. I didn't even have time to think the words "hit me", that's how quick it was. The thing is, while I was thinking that my brain was thinking other things. In those few seconds I thought of every possible way I could avoid the situation. I thought of losing my life and the possible injuries I could incur. I thought of the damage my car might sustain. I got angry at the driver and wondered if it was a man or a woman. I wondered what I was going to tell my boss. Through all of this I also calculated the situation and realized I could NOT avoid what was about to happen. All in about "two seconds". It felt like five minutes, even to this day when I think about it it just seems so much longer.

That's an example of time slowing down. There are times when time speeds up for people. The brain seems to be constantly calculating. I guess if the brain sees a way out of certain situations instead of slowing down time it speeds it up. So much so that the person doesn't even notice it. They will say they don't know how they did it, they "just did". A female who has never played sports in her life is on a date at a baseball game. There is a baby with the family seated next to her. A foul ball flies straight in their direction and it is about to hit the baby square in the face. The woman's lightning fast response ends up being the best catch of the game! Later that night when a news reporter asked her how she did it the woman responds "I really don't remember, I've never caught a ball in my life. I just saw it flying straight toward the baby and the next thing I knew it was in my hand"


I believe that it's one of the chemicals in the brain, something similar to adrenaline. I also believe that they are working on synthetic drugs to produce this very same effect (if they don't already have them). Reminds me of the new 2012 Judge Dredd movie. Dredd is a cop who must take down a QueenPin selling "Slow-Mo", a drug that makes the brain feel like time is moving at 1% of its "normal" speed.





Can't forget my favorite movie 'Limitless'. In this movie a man takes one pill a day that allows him access to 100% of his brain power as opposed to the 20% that "normal" people supposedly use.