A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica • Hacker News Board

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#21

Post by fileeditview » Thu, May 13, 2021, 6:18 AM UTC

I see that H.P. Lovecraft is mentioned but not his work on the topic: "At the Mountains of Madness". I recently discovered a great adaptation of his book by the Japanese Artist Gou Tanabe. If you are into B&W ink drawings you should really check out Tanabe's books.

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#22

Post by graderjs » Thu, May 13, 2021, 6:24 AM UTC

gibolt wrote: post #12

Related video by Joe Scott: Murder at the South Pole https://youtu.be/KtYhEaWi4lk

Related video US Army classified film Camp Century

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ujx_pND9wg

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#23

Post by mrslave » Thu, May 13, 2021, 6:30 AM UTC

Some of the people profiled in Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World look like they might be suffering at least a little isolation sickness or cabin fever.

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#24

Post by imagine99 » Thu, May 13, 2021, 6:41 AM UTC

natch wrote: post #5

colechristensen wrote: post #2

Future of expeditions to Mars?

Was thinking the same thing. But… although I do 100% drink the Elon Koolaid about "us" colonizing Mars, I really doubt that humans, as we know them today, are the creature that is going to be there. It will instead be some planet-specific tweaked versions of us and other creatures, eventually in a different substrate even, as opposed to bags of meat. When you think of it that way, the possibilities for mental health…

I feel like I want to hear more about what you're saying but despite reading it several times, your comment remains pretty opaque to me. Could you elaborate in a more plain English how exactly you think Mars colonisation will actually go? My understanding is that Elon considers this unmistakably as a concrete near-term goal, whereas - certainly to my knowledge - "tweaked versions of us... in a different substrate" seem significantly closer to science-fiction still (despite Neuralink etc.). So I'm curious what concrete things and time lines you were referring to...

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#25

Post by puchatek » Thu, May 13, 2021, 6:42 AM UTC

eisvogel wrote: post #19

They merely ventured too close to the forbidden plateau of Leh.

Leng

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#26

Post by hutzlibu » Thu, May 13, 2021, 7:03 AM UTC

imagine99 wrote: post #24

natch wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was thinking the same thing. But… although I do 100% drink the Elon Koolaid about "us" colonizing Mars, I really doubt that humans, as we know them today, are the creature that is going to be there. It will instead be some planet-specific tweaked versions of us and other creatures, eventually in a different substrate even, as opposed to bags of meat. When you think of it that way, the possibilities for mental health…

I feel like I want to hear more about what you're saying but despite reading it several times, your comment remains pretty opaque to me. Could you elaborate in a more plain English how exactly you think Mars colonisation will actually go? My understanding is that Elon considers this unmistakably as a concrete near-term goal, whereas - certainly to my knowledge - "tweaked versions of us... in a different substrate" se…

I think he means transhumanism. Genetically adopted humans/cyborgs, that can survive the radiation etc.

Scie-Fi for sure.

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#27

Post by TheOtherHobbes » Thu, May 13, 2021, 7:15 AM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #2

Future of expeditions to Mars?

Even the Moon. ISS visitors are selected very, very carefully to minimise these risks. But as soon as you get a slightly larger colony further from Earth, mental health is going to become a problem.

Which is why Mars is a tougher project than it seems. The ferry part is relatively easy compared to the incredibly difficult challenge of building a self-sustaining stable ecosystem that can survive on a manageably small umbilical to Earth, and the even harder challenge of building a political system that doesn't explode into factional war, regular suicides, and/or mad dictatorship.

Musk is already a little eccentric and doesn't seem like someone with the world's highest EQ. I suspect he's underestimating how hard it's going to be to make a colony work.

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#28

Post by sgtnoodle » Thu, May 13, 2021, 7:17 AM UTC

imagine99 wrote: post #24

natch wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was thinking the same thing. But… although I do 100% drink the Elon Koolaid about "us" colonizing Mars, I really doubt that humans, as we know them today, are the creature that is going to be there. It will instead be some planet-specific tweaked versions of us and other creatures, eventually in a different substrate even, as opposed to bags of meat. When you think of it that way, the possibilities for mental health…

I feel like I want to hear more about what you're saying but despite reading it several times, your comment remains pretty opaque to me. Could you elaborate in a more plain English how exactly you think Mars colonisation will actually go? My understanding is that Elon considers this unmistakably as a concrete near-term goal, whereas - certainly to my knowledge - "tweaked versions of us... in a different substrate" se…

I assume he's talking about loading human consciousness into computers or artificial brains, and running them in a data center on Mars. Meanwhile here in 2021, I can't get 5.1 surround to work on Disney+ or HBO Max over HDMI ARC on a 6 year old TV. I enjoyed watching the first season of "Upload" on Amazon Prime though!

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#29

Post by rvba » Thu, May 13, 2021, 7:29 AM UTC

fileeditview wrote: post #21

I see that H.P. Lovecraft is mentioned but not his work on the topic: "At the Mountains of Madness". I recently discovered a great adaptation of his book by the Japanese Artist Gou Tanabe. If you are into B&W ink drawings you should really check out Tanabe's books.

The Gou Tanabe adaptation deserves much more recognition among HP Lovecraft fans: it is simply fascinating. The story is told so well + the chapters about history of alien beings are just great.

Gou Tanabe's "Color from Outer Space" and "Haunter of the dark are great too, but "At the mountains of madness" is probably the best.

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#30

Post by argvargc » Thu, May 13, 2021, 7:38 AM UTC

neatze wrote: post #8

codetrotter wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the COVID-19 pandemic has shown a lot of us that actual physical isolation from others can be much more detrimental to our mental well-being than we thought, even for those of us who were already used to being on our own for prolonged periods of time.

> I think the COVID-19 pandemic has shown a lot of us that actual physical isolation from others can be much more detrimental to our mental well-being than we thought. Can you site source for this claim, I do not see any detrimental mental health, at least in terms of people are willingness to go back to work from office.