Einstein2087
Chrono Cadet
Since identifying the flashing number is an act of perception, I don't really see what your problem is. In life-threatening situations, your reflexes are keener. Your brain and senses operate faster. I suppose this is exactly the reason that people in such situation precieve time as being slowed down.
Besides, what alternative explanation would you suggest? If time itself speeded up, the effect would be easily detected. Think of how a person's voice sounds when played back at double speed. Do people in life threatening situations sound like that? Do their voices sound an octave higher, as you would expect if time really speeded up by a factor of two?
And what about the color of their skin? Color, as you know very well, depends on the frequency of the light reflected from the body. A person in a field that speeds time would appear blue. Do people in life threatening situations look bluish?
Then there is the question of the person's accesories and clothing. Are they affected by the slowdown effect too? If the guy wears a watch, would it speed up? And what if he swallowed that watch (assuming that it would continue to tick inside him)?
By the way, in actual relativistic situations, you do see these effects. A clock in a gravitational field will not only slow down, but also become redder. These redshifts were actually measured, both in earthbound scenarios (where the effect is, of-course, tiny) and in high-gravity environemnt in outer space. The observed redshift is exactly what relativity predicts it to be.
