Page 121 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

No Country for Old Men

his cell phone clock synchronized to the second with a computer
outside in the office. Then he stayed in the machine for an hour.
Sure enough, when he emerged the clocks were different:
everything outside the QAD had passed thirty-five minutes more
than he had inside it. He was like the traveling twin. Gravity, as
manifest in the QAD’s repeated high-speed starts and stops, had
slowed down Treadwell’s time relative to the non-vibrating world
outside it. The idea of him not aging was absurd, he knew; but he
could do something equivalent: he could make the rest of the
planet, and everything on it, age faster! Over the course of the next
two years, as well as staying late at the university, putatively to work
on his doctoral thesis, he bought, stole and crafted all the
components necessary to build his own QAD at home. By the time
he was forced to leave his position because he hadn’t produced any
documented analysis of terahertz oscillations, his own unit was
complete. This time capsule in reverse was laid out horizontally, like
a large coffin, so he could sleep in it. He also treated it as a
meditation tank, spending an hour or two every day relaxing with
headphones, listening to music, dramas or educational material
while his body imperceptibly went on trillions of round trips. Thus,
after five years had passed for everything and everyone else,
Treadwell had aged only three. After ten years he grew a beard and
dyed it grey to avoid suspicion.”
“And there you have the premise. It feels like he shouldn’t get
away with what is cheating, in various ways. But what would be the
most interesting way to have it all unravel?”
“You must admit, Fred,” began Cyril Kornfleck, “that the theme
of tempting fate via some dicey process of rejuvenation has been
around for thousands of years. But, as you say, the idea of only
appearing to slow down aging by making everyone else age faster is
innovative. Treadwell will live his normal span of years, not a
minute longer. However, you did not address his motivation: why
would he want to live, say, twice as long as everyone else? Maybe he
could get compound interest on his money and be a rich old man.
Maybe he thinks the environment is going to improve instead of

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