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The climber, a woman, spent those 500 days alone inside the cave voluntarily, as part of an experiment. It takes a special kind of person to volunteer for that
by cs702 4y ago
The climber, a woman, spent those 500 days alone inside the cave voluntarily, as part of an experiment.
It takes a special kind of person to volunteer for that and follow through with it.
I don't think I could stay alone in a cave for 100 days and emerge with my sanity intact, forget about 500.
- lm28469 4y agoIt reminded me of Michel Siffre, weird that there are no mentions of him in the article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Siffre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Siffre
- jdmtheNth 4y agoShe's the type of person you want to send to Mars.
- rurban 4y agoMars will be much harder. No chance to survive, hard radiation, rescue would need at least a year.
- kzrdude 4y agoMars has sunlight and a more inspiring mission
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoSo does Antarctica. She'd die there alone as well.
- qup 4y agoShe'd die in this cave alone! She can still be the kind of person you want to send to Mars.
- rurban 4y agoTrue. When I look at their current training env in Houston, it looks much better than a dark cave, alone. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/apr/12/nasa-texas-humans-prepare-mars https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/apr/12/nasa-texas-h...
- mensetmanusman 4y agoWater shields can mitigate the radiation damage.
- elihu 4y agoRadiation on Mars can be resolved in the same way, by living in a cave. I expect the first permanent settlements on Mars will either be in sealed sections of lava tubes or in underground artificial structures.
- Teever 4y agoI used to be irate when I would read these kinds of off the cuff comments about mars missions / colonization but I've come to realize that in 20 years I'll be able to look back and read these with amusement as I watch live streams of people on Mars doing crazy shit.
- shjake 4y agoI wonder what did the people living in the 60s think is going happen 20 years…
- Teever 4y agoI know that Von Braun expected humans to set foot on Mars by the late 1970s. If Von Braun thought that was possible it certainly was, if not for the pivot in budget that occured under Nixon. For better or worse we're seeing a resurgence in privately funded space exploration which may be the key to making it happen this time.
- Towaway69 4y agoPrivate companies are even worse in following long term goals especially if those goals become unprofitable. Private companies can also go bust or be bought up by competitors only to be shutdown.
- Teever 4y agoI agree with these points but I can see no evidence that they apply to SpaceX.
- Towaway69 4y agoWhen banks fail do they broadcast the fact beforehand? It's always a "shock" when a company fails. Just recently Virgin space (or whatever it was called) closed its doors. There wasn't a public debate beforehand, it was just announced. Sure insiders knew about it but not the broader public. I'm not implying that spaceX is going shut its doors but it even less incentive to be transparent than a governmental organisation.
- hammyhavoc 4y agoI'd go quite willingly. I'd probably enjoy it.
- qwertox 4y agoReally? The no-sun condition would drive me insane.
- hnlmorg 4y agoSome parts of the world can go without sunlight for months on end (and constant daylight at the opposite time of year). Personally I’ve gone a week without sunlight and rather enjoyed it. Not taking anything away from yourself or others. Just making a point that’s it’s not that unusual for people to live without the sun for extended periods.
- Dudeman112 4y agoYou mean the parts of the world where seasonal affective disorders are a blight on their society? Personally I severely underestimated the effect of large periods of time without sunlight, before going through it myself
- hnlmorg 4y agoI don’t really understand why people have taken such an objection to my comment. It’s factually accurate. I’m not suggesting that SAD isn’t a real thing either. Clearly there’s even a lot of research into it. In fact I have a few friends who suffer from it. But SAD was never my point. the point behind my post was just stating that plenty of people do live without the sun for extended periods and thus this article isn’t an isolated incident. And literally the only reason I made such a point was because the GP seemed surprised that someone might live that way. Edit: By the way, I’d love to see some statistics to back up your “blight” statement. Because there’s plenty of stats that rank Nordic counties highly in happiness and good mental health despite them having longer and darker winter months. Eg https://www.psycom.net/depression-central-html/depression-central-seasonal-html/how-the-happiest-countries-in-the-world-beat-sad https://www.psycom.net/depression-central-html/depression-ce... I don’t dispute cases of SAD would be higher in such countries (I haven’t personally run the figures) but equally I suspect your actual statement isn’t a fair reflection of the real situation either.
- loeg 4y agoIf you can go 7 days you can probably do 500.
- egman_ekki 4y agoYou might want to watch Alone reality show. It can get tougher with time. It’s not easy to be alone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_(TV_series)
- odd_perfect_num 4y agoStarving is the main problem they face though.
- bruce511 4y agoGenerally it seems to be three groups of people. Some go early. They're not suitably skilled to get food of they quickly figure out this isn't for them (one guy quit once before the first night.) In later seasons this group is very small. Around the 30-50 day mark the emotional part comes into play. Quite a few quit for emotional reasons. Once the hard-cores are left, then it comes down to food. At that point it becomes a race to see who can out-starve the others, without getting pulled for medical reasons.
- germandiago 4y agoProbably she is saner than us with so many social networks around now. Haha.
- treeman79 4y agoA Russian fled to Siberia, or they had no contact with anyone for decades. The father’s brother was executed in front of him due to Stalins religious persecution. So they were motivated to stay hidden. They could see satellites, overtime, and figured what those were. Understanding that rocket tech had continue to advance. Plastic wrap, however blew their minds. https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/12/russia-recluse-siberia-stalin-agafia-lykova-documentary https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/12/russia-recluse...
- sillysaurusx 4y agoI was reading about a Buddhist ritual for self mummification. The final phase involved being voluntarily lowered into the ground in a lotus position until they die. It’s quite amazing what the human mind can do. Especially when you’re crazy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu
- cplusplusfellow 4y ago> The practitioners of sokushinbutsu did not view this practice as an act of suicide, but rather as a form of further enlightenment.[14] At what point do we consider this a mental illness rather than some higher ascent?
- voakbasda 4y agoWhile I agree this borders on the literally insane, that line of thinking starts down a slippery slope. At what point do we consider any religious beliefs that have deleterious effects on oneself to be mental illness? I still believe in self-determination, even if that determination leads to killing oneself.
- itisamentalill 4y ago[flagged]
- voakbasda 4y agoAgain, while I agree with this sentiment, I think self-determination should still win the day. It is far too easy to be labeled as mentally ill and be committed to unwanted treatment. That has been tried in the past, and it never ends well. If someone is mentally ill and refuses treatment, that needs to be respected, up to the point that their beliefs begin to cause harm to others. Of course, that conclusion begs further questions. Should unwelcome proselytizing be considered an attempt to do harm? Should it be permissible to indoctrinate children into religion? These are not easy questions to answer without grossly infringing some individuals' rights to free speech and religion.
- dhosek 4y agoI have to admit that to me, this actually sounds quite nice. She had books, fresh food and clean clothes were sent down to her. I would totally do this.
- oh_sigh 4y agoDid she do it as part of an experiment, or did she decide to do it, and then they made an experiment out of it?