"For the sake of fairness, wen the world's fastest sprinters line up for the 100-meter dash, the sound of the gun comes up to them electronically, to protect against millisecond differences in the time of its arrival through the open breeze. Lasers shine on their backs to provide a continuous Doppler measurement of speed, acceleration, deceleration. And the finish line is monitored by filmless, computer-enhanced, digital cameras, splitting time with a precision beyond the reach of human senses.
"Carl Lewis, at his peak, occasionally lost 100-meter races that he had run faster than his competitors. His reaction time--the time it takes for the starting signal to translate through the eardrum, brain, nerves, and muscles--was generally mediocre, on the order of 140 milliseconds, compared with 115 to 120 milliseconds for the fastest starters. That one-fiftieth of a second difference now matters. It matters so much that reaction times are now regularly monitored. Officials declare a false start not only if a runner moves before the gun but also if a runner moves within a tenth of a second after the gun--because reaction times that fast are believed to be humanly impossible." (108-109)
"depressants like alcohol slow time, because the brain receives fewer inputs per second." (279)
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