> > > > > Let's assume for a moment that you could pause time without being paused yourself.
> > >
> > > > > -eric "I've always loved stories and movies and TV shows and stuff where they screwed with time. The time episodes of TNG were the coolest." sleator
> > > > > Fri 27 Mar A.D. 2082
> > > >
> > > > Even if you could see things, your brain wouldn't be able to comprehend it because all of your cells would also be stopped still in time, right?
> > > >
> > > > Ell"Not a science person, but this message caused a synapse to fire briefly"myruh
> > >
> > > Ummm. It says "without being paused yourself". I assume this means your cells, too. ;-) You would, however, be breathless, blind, deaf, and barely able to struggle futilely against the frozen molecules around you. Not much advantage to this power, it seems.
> >
> > Oh, right. I guess I missed an important point. I retract my last post.
> >
> > > Now, what if your power was limited to time-freezing living beings, and/or selected objects? You would have freedom of movement, then. Perhaps you could time-freeze an airplane(the outer part, except the door) while a rescue team goes to assist them. Then, when all have disembarked, and the rescue crew have left, you can let the airplane fall the rest of the way.
> > >
> > > Nyperold
> >
> > Now, THAT is an interesting idea! What if I could have time-frozen everyone in my class (including the professor and the T.A.s and excluding myself) yesterday during our rather difficult exam? I could have frozen everyone, pulled out my book to find a few answers, put the book away and then unfrozen everyone. Yes, I know that would be cheating, but this is a hypothetical situation anyway.
> >
> > I wonder if the other people would notice that they had been frozen, or that something had happened. If so, this sounds like an interesting way of annoying that one person who just happens to be standing on your last nerve. After freezing and unfreezing them several times, I imagine they would be very disconcerted. You could silently have the last laugh.
> >
> > Ell"Doesn't like trick multiple choice tests"myruh
>
> If we actually did develop the technology to freeze time like that I'd be scared. I wouldn't be scared that people would use it for Evil Purposes, but that someone would freeze time and die somehow, leaving the rest of us paused forever. Our only hope is if we put a time limit on the pausing.
>
> On a side note, it might be easier on the time guy if, instead of pausing suddenly, time around him slowed to a halt.
>
> -eric "I once read a book where this kid controlled time with a VCR remote control. I think it'd be cool if I could do it with my DVD remote control. Scene selection, alternate versions, subtitles, behind-the-scenes looks . . . " sleator
> Thu 5 Oct A.D. 2000

So time's paused, and the pauser dies. By that, we'd (the rest of the universe) spend an eternity frozen, never to be unpaused. So what if that happened? You wouldn't know.

I'm currently reading a book (They Came and Ate Us: Armageddon II: The B-Movie) which involves a great big machine powering the Earth, and similar machines powering other planets. The theory is that 'Nothing moves unless it's pushed', so the planets have to orbit somehow. But anyway. Whenever humanity does something daft and makes itself extinct (or nearly so), this machine is pushed back a bit to a moment before it all started going wrong, and hopefully it will right itself the second time. Now, if time is rewound whenever we do something bad, then we must be constantly on the point of rewind. Think about it for a bit. So, humanity is constantly on the point of total annihilation. akes you think, doesn't it?

Tub"Strayed from the original post, but it's about time, right?"ba