Hi Sciforums I remember when I got my wisdom teeth removed that when the doctor put me asleep with painkillers it seemed that just a moment later I awoke and the operation was complete. How much time passed while I was asleep? (it felt like just a second but I know it was longer than that) Is that not time travel?
No, your body, and your brain continued to travel at the normal rate through time. It may have felt like your mind was somehow shut off, but there is still brain activity in anesthesia. Just not very much. Either way, you're still ageing. Does a computer travel through time when it is shut off?
The computer exists in zero time because it has no consciousness, the computer is as dead as you will be when you finally kick the bucket. Imagine this: Before you were born the entire universe was formed, taking billions and billions of years to do so, but you felt none of that, for your consciousness it happened in an instant. And when you die the entire universe may end, it may take many more billions of years to happen, yet for you it happens in an instant because your awareness is non-existent in death. Without self aware consciousness there is no time at all. Perhaps I AM wrong, then I'd like to rephrase "time travel" into "conscious fastforwarding"
Probably a slightly better term to use, but still inaccurate. Your consciousness is still intact under anesthesia. In fact, the doctors and nurses can ask you questions to which you may even respond. Part of what anesthesia does is completely blocks your brains ability to form memories, so when it wears off, you have no memory of anything that just happened, even though you were conscious or semi conscious during the event. As to what you said above, I have had this realization long ago. That doesnt mean that all those things did happen instantaneously, it just seems that way. Yes there is. Your just not conscious of it. Time is still passing. Its like the tree falling in the forest experiment. If no one is there to hear it, does it make a noise?
Yeah of course... the mind a tricky machine! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Good response skaught!
They knocked you out for wisdom teeth pulls? LOL the fuckers wouldn't even put me out for a chest tube once. I will strangle the fucking doctor (with one lung) before I let them put me through that again.
I had some of that stuff for eye surgery. They needed to block my optic nerve and couldn't do that while I was conscious. When I came to again, I still thought I was waiting to be put out. It's a real crazy feeling to know you were knocked out and brought back with no awareness of it at all.
Anaesthesia is often a mix of drugs. The ones I saw used most often on a couple of weeks as a student in operating theatres were Midazolam and Propofol. If my understanding is correct, Propofol is a general anaesthetic agent (it knocks you unconscious), and Midazolam is a fast-acting benzodiazepene (it's a sedative, it calms you down). Both drugs also have a strong effect on memory. This is usually seen as a good thing - if a procedure is done with twilight anesthesia (semi-conscious, like for an endoscopy), or if someone wakes a little during a general anesthetic, the amnesic effect means they don't remember any associated discomfort. I'm not so sure it's a good thing. I don't think that erasing the memory of discomfort erases the discomfort itself, and I think that I'd rather keep the memory intact. There's pretty deep philosophical questions there, I think.
I couldn't have been out for more than a minute or two. Once they preformed a local on my optic nerve they brought me back to consciousness and completed the eye surgery. It was a very strange feeling but I do remember everything that happened during the surgery. That was how they used to do cataract surgery. It's my understanding they don't perform the block to the optic nerve anymore or stitch the eye anymore.
I wish to a god that I don't believe in that I'd have had that stuff in my system when I got stabbed. There are some pains that it is better to forget.
OH HELLLLLLLL NO! All my brothers and sisters got a local. When it was my turn, I said, "FUCK NO! There's no way that I'm going to sit there while they pull and grind and chop and shred my gums." My dad was really annoyed, considering his out-of-pocket was a bit more, but not having the memory of my teeth being yanked out was worth it. ~String
