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Originally Posted by haertig
Another example where science doesn't seem all that important is "Alien Earth" by Edmond Hamilton. It's a short story about time perception in a rain forest. The effected human moves extraordinary slow from the viewpoint of other humans. But from the slow humans viewpoint, trees and other plants are moving quickly - reaching for things with their vines and roots, slapping at things with their branches. The growth of plants over time is sentient, although too slow for a normal human to perceive. The only science in this that I can remember is that the human must take a drug to reach this ultra slow motion state (called "hunati" in the story). I guess drugs are the scientific part that makes it science fiction. Although it's not a lab developed drug, it's an ancient native drug IIRC. I always though the plot was such a neat concept. I remember it from my youth (which was a long time ago!)
This short story appears in Isaac Asimov's "The Golden Years of Science Fiction, Sixth Series" and also in a few other collections.
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Thanks for this rec, just read through and really enjoyed it. I love the subset of science fiction which takes an interesting idea and goes "what if?" as opposed to the seeming majority of sci fi which is just "man in space doing everyday things"