Anonymous: <p>The who time dilation system the Grid uses (1 min = 1 hr.) is absolutely sluggish compared to the clock speeds of modern processors. I would expect the dilation effect would actually be far more extreme. Like a century a nanosecond or something. </p>

Yeah, that seems more plausible.

Though I guess it depends on just what exactly “in-system time” represents, in terms of computer function. The number of tasks that can get done? The amount of data that can be transferred? I don’t know quite enough about computers to make a good guess.

I do like the idea that, in a “natural,” dynamic system like Encom, different software would be running at different speeds– and when the software is people, that would affect their interactions in ALL sorts of fascinating ways.