# Was a Drug Like This Ever Developed? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2013, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-drug-like-this-ever-developed/658227 "2013-05-13T13:20:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-drug-like-this-ever-developed/658227/1 "2013-05-13T13:20:53Z")
I remember a very old TV series “The Man and the Challenge”-which had an episode wherein a new drug was being tested. What the drug would do was to speed up the human brain-your perceptions would speed up to 100 times normal. Because of this, everything would appear to the user as slowed down by a factor of 100-hence, high speed driving maneuvers, fast judgements, etc. would be a piece of cake. I have always wondered if such a drug is possible-or if other inventions could be developed to improve human performance (in speed related actions). ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-drug-like-this-ever-developed/658227/2 "2013-05-13T13:53:29Z")
No, ralph. No such drug has ever been invented. There are also no bionic men with superstrength, and the only talking cars ever do is to remind you to close your door and fasten your seat belt. I don’t have the heart to tell you about the A-Team just now. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-drug-like-this-ever-developed/658227/3 "2013-05-13T14:07:47Z")
There are many drugs that make time appear to pass more slowly, but I don’t think any of them are beneficial to “high speed driving maneuvers.” ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-drug-like-this-ever-developed/658227/4 "2013-05-13T14:19:51Z")
You can get that feeling to some extent by ingesting too much caffeine. While your perception may seem noticeably quicker than normal, your ability to act accordingly isn’t necessarily improved. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-drug-like-this-ever-developed/658227/5 "2013-05-14T21:47:34Z")
It’s way too cool to ever be real. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-drug-like-this-ever-developed/658227/6 "2013-05-14T23:33:46Z")
Since the question’s been more or less answered, I’ll just add that marijuana is kind of the opposite - things appear to be happening in normal time, but then you look at the clock and realize only a few minutes have passed when you thought it was an hour. ---
**Author:** ![wheresmymind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@wheresmymind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheresmymind)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-drug-like-this-ever-developed/658227/7 "2013-05-15T00:10:34Z")
Yup. It’s called LSD, and it’s been pretty common on the street since the mid-1960’s 🙂 I actually recall reading a Malcom Gladwell article (or was it an article in Cracked? Funny those two could get confused.) that looked at the split-second decision making skills of highly trained professionals in extremely stressful circumstances, like soldiers in battle. Apparently Matrix-like abilities similar to the effects of your hypothetical drug are somewhat common in these situations. The anecdote that stood out for me was from a police officer involved in a shootout. He was crouched behind some cover and something caught his eye. He turned to see what he perceived to be beer-can like objects with “Federal” stamped on the bottom slowly falling next to him. It took him a second to realize that they were the spent casings from his partners gun, which were being ejected towards his face. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-drug-like-this-ever-developed/658227/8 "2013-05-15T00:17:46Z")
I was looking this up, looking into how time seems to slow down when you are in danger. But supposedly this is because you are forming new and powerful memories, so time just seems to be slower. > **[Why Time Seems to Slow Down in Emergencies](https://www.livescience.com/2117-time-slow-emergencies.html)** > > New medical research investigates how danger slows down time. > [@](#): > > Eagleman added this illusion "is related to the phenomenon that time seems to speed up as you grow older. When you’re a child, you lay down rich memories for all your experiences; when you’re older, you’ve seen it all before and lay down fewer memories. Therefore, when a child looks back at the end of a summer, it seems to have lasted forever; adults think it zoomed by. I don’t know of any drug to improve reaction time. Amphetamines and caffeine probably have a mild effect, but nothing special. As far as reaction time 100x higher, you have to reset your neurons after they fire and have adequate blood flow to oxygenate your brain tissue. I don’t know what the limit is on how fast your neurons could reset or your brain could use oxygen to have reaction times nearly that fast.