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It's strange that doing potentially-dangerous things with technology is frowned upon so much more than doing 'conventionally dangerous' stuff like base jumping,

It's strange that doing potentially-dangerous things with technology is frowned upon so much more than doing 'conventionally dangerous' stuff like base jumping, huge tricks on bikes/skateboards/snowboards, free climbing, and so on

a1pulley 5y ago
I think you mean "free solo climbing," not "free climbing." Free climbing means climbing with a rope and belayer but without artificial aid, like etriers or jumars.
- yupper32 5y ago
  Free climbing is dangerous enough to be in that list, IMO. Lots of things can go wrong even with ropes.
  - gonzo41 5y ago
    You should check out Ryan Jenks on How Not To. His rope swings are pretty safe but also just insane at the same time.
    - nathancahill 5y ago
      How Not To is so good. Tons of scientific research and analysis goes in to his work.
warent 5y ago
Probably conventionally dangerous stunts happen much more often than potentially dangerous engineering stuff. By definition you'll hear more outrage around more densely outrageous things. If more people did dangerous engineering stuff then it would be vice versa. Also perhaps a dangerous skateboard trick is less likely to harm anyone else but oneself, whereas an engineering disaster can catastrophic at a range
atoav 5y ago
Skateboarders don't really create the impression that their sport is that one cheap trick to skip a propper medical X-Ray. Or phrased differently: there are no people with broken bones and insufficient funds looking at skateboarders and thinking: "I should do that, because I live in a nation without a propper health care system"
ribosometronome 5y ago
Really? It seems to me like folk on YouTube generally get upset over folk doing dangerous things without framing them as such. Folk are upset at Alex Choi over his involvement with the recent Tesla jump that resulted in a crash and damaged property. There was a fair deal of outrage at Trevor Jacob within the aviation community over his apparent fake engine failure video, where he did the wrong thing even if the engine had failed. The Thought Emporium had folk wagging their finger at them when they had a video on a guy trying to modify his own genome so they wouldn't be lactose intolerant. But folk generally aren't mad with about things the Mythbusters' did, even though they could have been dangerous, because they were presented as dangerous. Folk have gotten into competitions to fill their backyards with the most foam they can -- which can be dangerous. But it's generally presented as that and they talk about the heat generated and such. Those sorts of things are generally presented as entertaining not a way to get around an expensive medical system or good idea.
- galangalalgol 5y ago
  Is there anyone who doesn't understand that modifying their genome has risks? The bad engine recovery is misinformation, that deserves criticism. But the intersection of people who could copy the xray design and those who don't know xrays cause damage must be vanishingly small right? It feels like some sort of moral outrage.
hammock 5y ago
Exposure to x-rays is harmful every time. In contrast, basejumping, skateboard tricks, etc. only pose a risk of harm. Edit: why the downvotes?
- lazide 5y ago
  The risk of catastrophic harm for BASE jumping (and I say this as a licensed skydiver who has many friends who are base jumpers) is high enough it’s almost certainly safer taking a machine gun, pointing it straight up, and emptying a couple belts in the air trying to hit yourself in the head. As a noob, it’s more like putting on a blindfold and wandering across 101 at 8pm for a few minutes. Skateboarding for noobs is much safer as it’s more on the broken bones side than fatalities.
  - hammock 5y ago
    You might be missing my point. It's like how stabbing yourself in a random spot on the torso with a knife would be (in my estimation) more frowned upon/antisocial than playing Russian roulette with a six shooter.
gonzo41 5y ago
My big hate, is seeing the more common but much more dangerous activities on youtube not being called out for really stupid OH&S issues. I watch a lot of car stuff on youtube and I wince ever time I see someone use an angle ginder without gloves, or worse the blade shield. It's a lot more common to go turn on a power tool and rip a finger off than to do a bmx jump, or build a killer robot or some such. There's a degree of normalization of deviance there.
bmitc 5y ago
Doing stuff with science and technology is dangerous in non-obvious and unintuitive ways, and making experiments safe requires expert knowledge. So, the analogy doesn't hold. I don't know anyone who considers those other things you listed as not dangerous.

a1pulley 5y ago

I think you mean "free solo climbing," not "free climbing." Free climbing means climbing with a rope and belayer but without artificial aid, like etriers or jumars.

yupper32 5y ago
Free climbing is dangerous enough to be in that list, IMO. Lots of things can go wrong even with ropes.
- gonzo41 5y ago
  You should check out Ryan Jenks on How Not To. His rope swings are pretty safe but also just insane at the same time.
  - nathancahill 5y ago
    How Not To is so good. Tons of scientific research and analysis goes in to his work.

warent 5y ago

Probably conventionally dangerous stunts happen much more often than potentially dangerous engineering stuff. By definition you'll hear more outrage around more densely outrageous things. If more people did dangerous engineering stuff then it would be vice versa. Also perhaps a dangerous skateboard trick is less likely to harm anyone else but oneself, whereas an engineering disaster can catastrophic at a range

atoav 5y ago

Skateboarders don't really create the impression that their sport is that one cheap trick to skip a propper medical X-Ray. Or phrased differently: there are no people with broken bones and insufficient funds looking at skateboarders and thinking: "I should do that, because I live in a nation without a propper health care system"

ribosometronome 5y ago

Really? It seems to me like folk on YouTube generally get upset over folk doing dangerous things without framing them as such. Folk are upset at Alex Choi over his involvement with the recent Tesla jump that resulted in a crash and damaged property. There was a fair deal of outrage at Trevor Jacob within the aviation community over his apparent fake engine failure video, where he did the wrong thing even if the engine had failed. The Thought Emporium had folk wagging their finger at them when they had a video on a guy trying to modify his own genome so they wouldn't be lactose intolerant. But folk generally aren't mad with about things the Mythbusters' did, even though they could have been dangerous, because they were presented as dangerous. Folk have gotten into competitions to fill their backyards with the most foam they can -- which can be dangerous. But it's generally presented as that and they talk about the heat generated and such. Those sorts of things are generally presented as entertaining not a way to get around an expensive medical system or good idea.

galangalalgol 5y ago
Is there anyone who doesn't understand that modifying their genome has risks? The bad engine recovery is misinformation, that deserves criticism. But the intersection of people who could copy the xray design and those who don't know xrays cause damage must be vanishingly small right? It feels like some sort of moral outrage.

hammock 5y ago

Exposure to x-rays is harmful every time. In contrast, basejumping, skateboard tricks, etc. only pose a risk of harm. Edit: why the downvotes?

lazide 5y ago
The risk of catastrophic harm for BASE jumping (and I say this as a licensed skydiver who has many friends who are base jumpers) is high enough it’s almost certainly safer taking a machine gun, pointing it straight up, and emptying a couple belts in the air trying to hit yourself in the head. As a noob, it’s more like putting on a blindfold and wandering across 101 at 8pm for a few minutes. Skateboarding for noobs is much safer as it’s more on the broken bones side than fatalities.
- hammock 5y ago
  You might be missing my point. It's like how stabbing yourself in a random spot on the torso with a knife would be (in my estimation) more frowned upon/antisocial than playing Russian roulette with a six shooter.

gonzo41 5y ago

My big hate, is seeing the more common but much more dangerous activities on youtube not being called out for really stupid OH&S issues. I watch a lot of car stuff on youtube and I wince ever time I see someone use an angle ginder without gloves, or worse the blade shield. It's a lot more common to go turn on a power tool and rip a finger off than to do a bmx jump, or build a killer robot or some such. There's a degree of normalization of deviance there.

bmitc 5y ago

Doing stuff with science and technology is dangerous in non-obvious and unintuitive ways, and making experiments safe requires expert knowledge. So, the analogy doesn't hold. I don't know anyone who considers those other things you listed as not dangerous.