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From: gsmith@BRAHMS.BERKELEY.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Why is light fast?
Message-ID: <8706041124.AA13828@brahms.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Thu, 4-Jun-87 07:24:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: brahms.8706041124.AA13828
Posted: Thu Jun  4 07:24:26 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Jun-87 06:18:12 EDT
References: <567@sri-arpa.ARPA> <785@klipper.cs.vu.nl>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: brahms.Berkeley.EDU!gsmith@brahms.Berkeley.EDU (Gene Ward Smith)
Organization: Brahms Gang Posting Central
Lines: 16
Xref: utgpu sci.physics:1487 sci.philosophy.tech:136

In article <785@klipper.cs.vu.nl> biep@cs.vu.nl (J. A. "Biep" Durieux) writes:

>Another question: is there any inherent reason why our velocities
>*are so much* lower than light's? There is a story 'if light
>*went with 55 mph', >which made me wonder.

  Was that Gamow's Mr. Tompkin? In any case, if one changed either
the fine structure constant or the electron/proton mass ratio in
the appropriate direction, one could increase the proportion of
available chemical energy as a fraction of the rest mass, and so
perhaps the typical speed of chemically-fueled organisms as a
fraction of the speed of light. Is this the sort of thing you
meant by "inherent reason"?

ucbvax!brahms!gsmith      Gene Ward Smith/Brahms Gang/Berkeley CA 94720
Proud member of ECIS -- "An effete corps of impudent snobs" -- I division