Despite these apparent obstacles, the human nervous system is able to maintain control of processes that occur on time scales shorter than the delay, to respond quickly in an ever changing environment, and to perform complex computational tasks, such as imaging processing, with surprising speed. These issues are addressed in the context of experiments involving neuron-computer circuits, stick balancing at the fingertip, and the golf swing. Appropriate mathematical and computer models are formulated in terms of stochastic delay differential equations. A number of novel mechanisms for control, memory storage, and computation are identified: rapid responses can be achieved by making use of an underlying multistability, fast control with delayed feedback by using parametric noise ("on-off intermittency") and preprogramming, and rapid computation using populations of noisy, multistable elements. Noisy dynamical systems with retarded variables offer a number of under-appreciated advantages for computation and control that may have many applications.