Supertasking
2009, 30:00
video clip

Supertasking
Supertasking is a term in physics that refers to traveling faster than the speed of light, which is, for all practical and scientific purposes, impossible. A time machine would be required that could cover an infinite span of time, forwards or backwards, within a finite period. In computational terms, it would mean determining the entire infinite decimal span in a finite number of computational steps. A normal computer, such as we have today, and such as Alan Turing had in 1954 when he began to postulate a theory of supertasking, would never stop calculating, and therefore never reach an answer.

In terms of pop science, these questions are resolved in the myths about space travel, bending time and space, the idea that the astronaut in space exists in a different relationship to time than those of us on the surface of Earth. If she were to travel faster than the speed of light, she could come back to the surface, decompress a bit, have a shower and a meal, and then go to the seashore to watch herself touch down.

Supertasking is about being in transit - first waiting, then embarking, riding, and finally leaving the surface. We will never move faster than the speed of light, or even the speed of cognition. Our bodies may seem fixed in earthly space and time, but we float continuously between past and future, memories mapping themselves onto one another, perceptions never still, bodies always transit, life in progress.

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