From Zapit "News" by Alex MacCaskill at http://www.zapit.org Do you always feel short of time? Is 24x7 beginning to feel like 25x8? Who would not want an extra hour a day to deal with all those emails, voice mails and text messages from colleagues?
The answer may be at hand.
It may seem far-fetched, if not incredible, but after studying
effects of time on
local populace, scientists in Polegate, East Sussex, England, believe they have invented a new device that could provide a solution by actually stopping
passage of time for up to one hour a day.
This reporter tested
device and is now absolutely convinced that something astonishing is happening near
normally sleepy South coast of England.
BACKGROUND
Professor Heinz Siebenundfünfzig of
"Polegate Institute for Population Studies (annexe)", near Eastbourne, takes up
story.
‘There is a common perception that time always seems to pass more quickly when people are enjoying themselves, "having fun", as it were. Conversely
belief is that time seems to pass more slowly when tedious, repetitive tasks must be performed, for example, at work.
We decided to investigate
foundation of this belief and to discover if there is any scientific justification for it.
Our team of ten researchers spent six months without interruption observing people at their various places of work. The same team then spent six months ensconced in places of recreation, such as bars and night clubs.
A "double-blind" testing approach was used in
bars and clubs to prevent
conscious or unconscious skewing of results. We then asked our researchers to compile their reports.
RESULTS
The results were astonishing:
1) The physical and mental effects of ageing actually seemed to be diminished, if not eliminated, by
subjects having even mildly enjoyable fun, comparable to watching a favourite television program with a box of chocolates at hand and one’s feet kept warm by resting them on a dog’s back.
2) By contrast brainless, drop-jawed tedium immeasurably increased
effects of time on our minds and bodies, comparable to
subject watching television shopping channels or any daytime television.
3) These effects were compared to a median level of just feeling "normal", such as
subject watching television news involving neither chocolates nor dogs.
The passage of time on a daily basis is therefore demonstrably "stretched". We measured this phenomenon with great scientific precision in extended tests and found a further strange effect.
EMAILS, TEXTS, VOICE MAILS
By asking people to deal with email and other messages from colleagues in a controlled environment called "FunZone", we could actually stop time completely by precisely one hour per day.
Quite why this should happen specifically when dealing with such messages we are still not sure, though several subjects did admit that ploughing through emails from colleagues about something in which they had not
slightest interest had always made them feel like giving up
will to live, thereby making time seem to pass more slowly anyway.
Possibly "FunZone" merely accentuated
effects.
However, our next challenge was to prove even greater.
REAL-WORLD APPLICATION
How could
findings be of practical use to
general populace, since controlled environments are notoriously difficult to duplicate outside
laboratory? This lead us to further research and collaboration with some of
many time-space continuum engineering companies in
area to develop these findings and to exploit them commercially, if possible.
The brief: to develop a device that could duplicate
useful effects of "time-stretching". The aim was to make these devices easily available in public places, at work or at home. People could therefore pay to enter them and get
business benefits of saving an hour per day by dealing with their tedious messages without wasting time.
Stress would be reduced and productivity improved. Thus
"P-box" was created.’
THE DEVICE ITSELF
Professor Siebenundfünfzig let me test
device. The capsule is cylindrical in shape, about two metres in diameter, three in height; just large enough for one person of average height to sit down comfortably and dock a laptop computer (on one’s knees, it must be said). The walls are painted a hazy purple, it is cosy and warm, with relatively low lighting. No external sound is audible.