Suppose, just for the sake of argument, that the speed of light — or more accurately, the maximum velocity that information can travel in a vacuum — were much faster. Let’s say it was a thousand times faster. In that case light would be able to travel the diameter of our Earth’s orbit around the Sun not in 1000 seconds, but in a single second.
Suppose further that somehow this difference did not alter gravity, chemistry, biology, or the various other physical properties that govern our lives at terrestrial scale. I realize that this may be inconsistent with the laws of physics as we know them, but go with me here.
What effect would that change in the speed of light have on our daily lives? For example, if terrestrial telecommunications systems could effectively be instantaneous, would things be radically different?
In particular, what effect would that possibility of instantaneous communication have on our world’s economy, on its culture? What effect would it have on our lives in general?
* Online gaming communities would be much less segregated geographically, though time zones would still keep some groups from encountering each other
* High-frequency trading would be open to more people than just those few who can afford to lease space in data centers directly adjacent to the stock exchange
* Future extra-planetary and extra-solar colonies would be able to maintain a closer connection to the motherworld.
I think maybe nothing would happen, because the feeling of time is base the speed of electron the same as light speed.
If you suppose the electron speed is the same as the world we are living but the light speed is much faster, I still think maybe nothing would be change around the fields of economy and culture, they seems no relation to the speed of light, but to the speed of electron.
The key question is:
Why the speed of light is that number, not fast one meter per second, and not less one meter. I think the number is the key.
Actually the velocity of the pulsing electric field that constitutes the signal through an electric wire relates not to the speed of an electron but to the speed of light. The transmitted signal generally travels at a rate of at least 50% of the speed of light in a vacuum.
I really like the question you raise at the end of your comment!