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Frankly I don't understand why people turn risk of falling into risk of death. Why can't they make some device for him, say, a thick-ish belt, which will make

Frankly I don't understand why people turn risk of falling into risk of death. Why can't they make some device for him, say, a thick-ish belt, which will make him hang inside of a sphere full of compressed gas, after a second of free fall? Not unlike how car SRS work? Why don't ships have inflatable balloons strapped to their hulls that would allow them to float indefinitely? We still have sinking ferries with hundreds dead that could perhaps been fully prevented?

sporkologist 10y ago
Safety devices would negate the exceptional risk he's undertaking, and make it not so remarkable. That's why "walking a tightrope without a net" is remarkable. As to the sinking ferries situation, yeah those should be safer, but no one on a ferry is proud of risking their life on their daily commute.
steveax 10y ago
Before his death, Dean Potter was developing the practice of "base soloing" (climbing with only a base rig) [1] [1]: https://vimeo.com/2872213 https://vimeo.com/2872213
CamperBob2 10y ago
Why can't they make some device for him, say, a thick-ish belt, which will make him hang inside of a sphere full of compressed gas, after a second of free fall? Not unlike how car SRS work? Probably because the inflation of such a sphere, like an airbag going off, would be an incredibly violent event in itself. Also, decelerating inside the confines of a small sphere wouldn't be much gentler than just hitting the ground at full speed. Some sort of jet-assist contraption to slow your descent might be a better bet. It would arm itself when it senses that you've fallen, and fire the next time it senses that it's upright. I have a feeling that a lot of people who die in this sport are either paralyzed or dead before they hit the ground, due to collisions with outcroppings in the rock face. Free climbing isn't something that you would want to do if you have the slightest concern for your own neck, and I don't think any number of Rube Goldberg gadgets will change that.
justinator 10y ago
> Frankly I don't understand why people turn risk of falling into risk of death. Because it's fun.
beefield 10y ago
I look it this way. People seem to be very different to what they need to experience different feelings. To put that into one-dimensional scale (which does not give justice to the wide variety of peoples' feelings but simplifies the analysis): One may sense tremendeous joy seeing new flowers in the spring and vast sense of disappointment missing a train when next leaves 15 minutes later. In order to get the same sensations, some other needs to success in something in which a failure would mean death, or fail in something very difficult that he/she has been working on years. Now, if you force the first person to not have those sensations, what will happen? I find it a very possible outcome that the life becomes so unbearable that the person is ready to kill him/herself. If this is remotely correct, it should be quite easy to see why some people are ready to take fatal risks voluntarily. To feel something.
collyw 10y ago
Because it makes life so much more worth living.

sporkologist 10y ago

Safety devices would negate the exceptional risk he's undertaking, and make it not so remarkable. That's why "walking a tightrope without a net" is remarkable. As to the sinking ferries situation, yeah those should be safer, but no one on a ferry is proud of risking their life on their daily commute.

steveax 10y ago

Before his death, Dean Potter was developing the practice of "base soloing" (climbing with only a base rig) [1] [1]: https://vimeo.com/2872213 https://vimeo.com/2872213

CamperBob2 10y ago

Why can't they make some device for him, say, a thick-ish belt, which will make him hang inside of a sphere full of compressed gas, after a second of free fall? Not unlike how car SRS work? Probably because the inflation of such a sphere, like an airbag going off, would be an incredibly violent event in itself. Also, decelerating inside the confines of a small sphere wouldn't be much gentler than just hitting the ground at full speed. Some sort of jet-assist contraption to slow your descent might be a better bet. It would arm itself when it senses that you've fallen, and fire the next time it senses that it's upright. I have a feeling that a lot of people who die in this sport are either paralyzed or dead before they hit the ground, due to collisions with outcroppings in the rock face. Free climbing isn't something that you would want to do if you have the slightest concern for your own neck, and I don't think any number of Rube Goldberg gadgets will change that.

justinator 10y ago

> Frankly I don't understand why people turn risk of falling into risk of death. Because it's fun.

beefield 10y ago

I look it this way. People seem to be very different to what they need to experience different feelings. To put that into one-dimensional scale (which does not give justice to the wide variety of peoples' feelings but simplifies the analysis): One may sense tremendeous joy seeing new flowers in the spring and vast sense of disappointment missing a train when next leaves 15 minutes later. In order to get the same sensations, some other needs to success in something in which a failure would mean death, or fail in something very difficult that he/she has been working on years. Now, if you force the first person to not have those sensations, what will happen? I find it a very possible outcome that the life becomes so unbearable that the person is ready to kill him/herself. If this is remotely correct, it should be quite easy to see why some people are ready to take fatal risks voluntarily. To feel something.

collyw 10y ago

Because it makes life so much more worth living.