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I feel like this wouldn't work. I'm not a doctor, but I was under the impression that the brain could survive lack of blood flow for several minutes. How long
by fixermark 13y ago
I feel like this wouldn't work.
I'm not a doctor, but I was under the impression that the brain could survive lack of blood flow for several minutes. How long is this ride supposed to last?
- wellboy 13y agoI think the body can survive the lack of oxygen for several minutes, because there is always oxygen left in the body that the brain can use. However, if the brain cells consume any oxygen at all, because there is nothing there, they can die pretty quickly such as within 30 seconds.
- unwind 13y agoThe ride time is 3:20 according to the linked-to page. I thought this was horrible. I guess it's "art", but still. Yuck.
- k-mcgrady 13y ago>> "I thought this was horrible." What about it did you find horrible? If you wanted to end your life it seems like a relatively pain free way to do so. Artistically it's also pretty interesting imo.
- nsxwolf 13y agoI find euthanasia to be horrible, so a euthanasia roller coaster is automatically horrible.
- JohnBooty 13y agoI, too, am offended by people wanting control over their own deaths. They should die when and how I tell them to die, not die with dignity at a time of their choosing!
- nsxwolf 13y agoThere is no such thing as death with dignity. The body is always corrupted. "Death with dignity" is a silly loaded catchphrase designed to put opponents off balance, and is offensive to those who have chosen to die another way - some might say, with courage.
- venomsnake 13y agoThere is no such thing as death with dignity. But there are different grades of death with indignity. And I am free to choose how when (hopefully in a long long time) it comes to that...
- aqme28 13y agoYou've said "those who have chosen to die another way," but people don't have that choice and are forbidden from making it. While you're opposed to euthanasia, would you be okay with giving people the option for euthanasia if they so chose?
- sbirchall 13y agoI find it particularly galling that "Death with dignity" is "a silly loaded catchphrase designed to put opponents off balance" and yet "Death with courage" is something you throw in to support that belief. You need to take a moment to listen to your own rhetoric and think about the people your opinions effect.
- nsxwolf 13y agoLet me make it clear: I am not in the least bit interested in your moral judgement of my beliefs, nor am I interested in your advice regarding my rhetoric.
- TallGuyShort 13y agoNor are the people who would choose to be euthanized interested in your beliefs. That's their point.
- 13y ago
- k-mcgrady 13y agoWhy do you find euthanasia horrible? It's much more horrible to force someone to endure sever pain against their will.
- nsxwolf 13y agoThere's really no point hashing out the argument here. It's a pointless discussion. I was just pointing out one of the possible reasons someone would find this roller coaster to be horrible.
- jawns 13y agoI don't think you realize that euthanasia isn't always voluntary.
- davidw 13y agoI think that someone dying is pretty horrible, even if it is less horrible than dying some other way.
- davidcollantes 13y agoDying is horrible? Why? We all die, it is a known end, why will it be horrible?
- fixermark 13y agoI personally hope I get to go the way I want to. ... struck directly in the head, from behind, caught completely unawares by something moving at several times the speed of sound, with enough size and kinetic energy to very quickly dissociate my body's molecules with negligible loss to the impactor's velocity. A rocket would do nicely. I know that there's no sensible way to justify the expense for one person's almost-certainly (based on current understanding of physics and biology) painless death. But a boy can dream. ;)
- davidcollantes 13y agoWhat do you find horrible about it?
- nilkn 13y agoDo you really want to devolve this into yet another internet debate on the morality of euthanasia? That's really not the point of this thought experiment.
- ekianjo 13y agoDefine pain free. When you get several Gs in your body I'm not sure you don't feel any kind of pain. If you like this as art then you are probably the kind of person who enjoy the painted cadaver's exhibitions.
- haberman 13y agoI think two minutes of that 3:20 are just getting to the top. The 10g only lasts 60 seconds.
- fauria 13y agoThis is how it would look like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEklVDlqwbQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEklVDlqwbQ
- rytis 13y agoI guess if they inverted it, so that the passengers get exposed to negative g force it would be "safer". It seems that -3g is enough to kill, so 7 loops of -10g would be sure death. EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-force#Vertical_axis_g-force http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-force#Vertical_axis_g-force
- TylerE 13y agoNegative G is much more uncomfortable than positive G.
- cobalt 13y agonot necessarily, some would black out pretty quickly. Lateral Gs are the by far most uncomfortable G forces (and other non vertical i suppose)
- TylerE 13y agoYou will never black out from negative G. You will RED out as blood rushes into your eyes. The reason you black out from positive G is that your blood pools in your legs and feet, starving the brain. Negative G is more uncomfortable because our organs are not designed for it, as it isn't encountered in nature.
- sdfjkl 13y agoMuch more difficult to secure against accidental ejection though.
- venomsnake 13y agoIt is indeed terrible to crash accidentally yourself to death when you want to crush yourself to death on purpose.
- sdfjkl 13y agoI was thinking of the cleanup crews. People are always very inconsiderate of those when killing themselves :-/ Ever saw the mess it makes when somebody jumps in front of a train?
- Udo 13y agoI do have some medical training, and I'm inclined to agree with your suspicion that it doesn't actually work. The "critical" portion only lasts a few seconds, up to a minute. Depending on the direction of the force, 10g for a minute would be close to the edge for untrained people but not expected to have long-lasting harmful effects in most cases. There are several ways in which high g forces cause harm to humans. The article mentions blood flow, specifically applying the amount of acceleration necessary to stop oxygenated blood from reaching the brain. Completely stopping the flow of blood for 60 seconds will result in a loss of consciousness, but the designers of the coaster seem to be under the impression that achieving this even for a moment kills people. They're wrong. If normal blood flow is restored after 60 seconds of anoxia, no adverse effects are to be expected at all, not even in the short term. Of course statistically there will be cases where the heart enters one of several possible failure modes under these conditions (again mostly in humans with pre-existing health problems) and while I expect it to be rare among the healthy population, those people would indeed need immediate medical attention - but they too can be expected to make a full recovery if they receive it. High g forces can also damage blood vessels due to simple overpressure, causing them to rupture. This will happen with body parts located in the direction of the force applied. In this design, this will be the lower extremities, where this damage - if it occurs - will be minimal. But if you suspended people "upside down", that would be another story. Overpressure in the blood vessels of the brain is a dangerous thing. Again, I'm not sure 10g for 60 seconds is enough, but I'd intuitively say if there was any way of inducing fatalities with this coaster that would be the way to go. Especially people with existing defects and weaknesses of the blood vessels in their brains would be most at risk, people with aneurisms for example. Lastly, high g forces can cause tissue trauma due to compression or internal impact damage. 10g for 60 seconds would not be enough to cause that in healthy organs. But if the coaster's design was changed to 20 or 30 g, delivered over an extended period, injuries and fatalities due to organ trauma (including the brain) will occur. So on final consideration: this roller coaster will cause people to pass out for up to a minute. However, this effect is completely reversible. In healthy people, no lasting damage is expected.
- brightsize 13y agoThat's great information. I assume though that healthy people wouldn't be euthanizing themselves just for laughs. They'd normally be sick to begin with. This ride would be great for fraternity hazing. The frat would get some yuks as the pledges went round and round, and the school would have plausible deniability - "the University understood that they were simply enjoying a day at the amusement park".