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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: S-99 on December 11, 2013, 02:29:10 am

Title: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: S-99 on December 11, 2013, 02:29:10 am
It's quite disturbing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_Coaster). It's a roller coaster that maintains 10g's on it's coasterers long enough to incur brain death from prolonged cerebral hypoxia. I'm not saying this isn't a nice way to die (it beats many other ways humans kill each other and themselves in the area of being humane). Just that the idea is creepy. I am glad it will most likely remain just a concept; roller coasters are more or less entertainment and fun, you sort of destroy this when you link entertainment and fun with death and mass suicide.

You can always kill yourself for free. But, with corporate ways to kill yourself, you can potentially have a more pleasant time with the offing experience. The roller coaster is great, you die from passing out to brain death. However, i could be quite wrong, but i imagine that's easier to deal with than staring down the barrel of your own gun. This goes after the idea that it's easier to do stuff if someone is holding your hand. This also goes after that not everyone who wants to kill themselves has the balls.
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: The E on December 11, 2013, 02:39:10 am
Ummm

What exactly is the point of this thread?
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Nuke on December 11, 2013, 03:32:56 am
roller coasters are more or less entertainment and fun, you sort of destroy this when you link entertainment and fun with death and mass suicide.

its people like you who make life dull and uninteresting for people like me. :D let the carnage ensue!

i say we need to have suicide booths. i mean seriously, had i managed to complete my suicide attempts in 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2009, i wouldn't be the contented social parasite i am today.
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: The E on December 11, 2013, 04:07:49 am
I am glad it will most likely remain just a concept; roller coasters are more or less entertainment and fun, you sort of destroy this when you link entertainment and fun with death and mass suicide.

What does this say about guns then?
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Luis Dias on December 11, 2013, 04:40:37 am
I think we should do a reality show based on this.
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: redsniper on December 11, 2013, 08:13:02 am
I think at 10g it wouldn't be much fun at all and would be a rough way to go. This is pretty morbid. :blah:
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Mikes on December 11, 2013, 08:27:15 am
I think we should do a reality show based on this.

Rather I would demand that every single reality show immediately starts using this with all participants riding the coaster in the first episode.


Who's with me?
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: BloodEagle on December 11, 2013, 08:40:00 am
I think we should do a reality show based on this.

Rather I would demand that every single reality show immediately starts using this with all participants riding the coaster in the first episode.


Who's with me?
I'll second that.
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Flipside on December 11, 2013, 09:06:59 am
Saw this on QI, as Ross Noble said, they might as well put a crematorium at the end of it, and then the family can buy a photograph of their loved one on the biggest drop as a memorial for the day ;)
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: StarSlayer on December 11, 2013, 10:35:46 am
Time is marching on...

Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Lorric on December 11, 2013, 10:48:48 am
Well this concept simply wouldn't make enough money to be viable.

You know, I thought this topic wouldn't be literal, that it would be about the rollercoaster people have to go through through the courts to be given the right to die, or the rollercoaster of emotions people might go through, but I did imagine literal scenarios before I clicked the link. The first thing I thought of was a rollercoaster that slams your head into a big rack of metal spikes. :ick:

And the second simply launches you off the top of the coaster. That would be some way to go...
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: S-99 on December 11, 2013, 11:35:20 am
Ummm

What exactly is the point of this thread?
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3f/Euthanasia_Coaster.jpg)
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Lorric on December 11, 2013, 11:50:31 am
It seems I need to say something, you can't just put a Youtube video. So there ya go.
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: BrotherBryon on December 11, 2013, 12:23:52 pm
You can always kill yourself for free. But, with corporate ways to kill yourself, you can potentially have a more pleasant time with the offing experience. The roller coaster is great, you die from passing out to brain death. However, i could be quite wrong, but i imagine that's easier to deal with than staring down the barrel of your own gun. This goes after the idea that it's easier to do stuff if someone is holding your hand. This also goes after that not everyone who wants to kill themselves has the balls.

Why did I get this in my head when you mentioned "corporate ways to kill yourself"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-vRpQ0YyYo
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Mito [PL] on December 11, 2013, 01:11:40 pm
10 g's? This thing could break necks of people not sitting straight. Right?
Also... smells like Hitler.  :shaking:
And here comes to my mind: what if people in the carts (whatever) would hang with heads down to the ground on the beginning of the "ride" instead of sitting?
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Mika on December 11, 2013, 01:42:59 pm
I don't know why, but I sort of doubt that 10Gs and one minute would be enough for everyone - the G onset rate is probably designed tough enough so that few can compensate accordingly.

The proposal is done by arts Ph. D. Color me macabre, but it's sort of fitting. Perhaps the arts students want to see whether the general morality of the population has shifted? Because I definitely would not count that out on this.
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Axem on December 11, 2013, 06:18:40 pm
I want to get off Mr Bone's Wild Ride.
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Mongoose on December 11, 2013, 06:34:17 pm
I don't know why, but I sort of doubt that 10Gs and one minute would be enough for everyone - the G onset rate is probably designed tough enough so that few can compensate accordingly.
Yeah, I know you generally lose consciousness around 9 Gs (probably less without a flight suit), but 10 killing you seems extremely suspect, even over the course of a minute.  I don't think your brain would suffer permanent damage from hypoxia over that duration.
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Dragon on December 11, 2013, 08:49:59 pm
Certainly not enough for people who had high-G training before. You can get that in a Hornet (though probably not for this long) if you pull hard enough. 20G over two minutes would probably do it, though. People can survive 20G, but over a much shorter time (many rocket abort modes could pull that much, but over about a second).
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: watsisname on December 11, 2013, 09:35:25 pm
Yeah, human tolerance to gee forces depends on duration, direction of force, and varies by individual.  Very high gee forces can be survived if experienced only briefly.  We also cope with positive (downward) forces much better than negative (upward) -- AKA redout. 

The concept for this roller coaster is to subject riders ~10 positive gees for about a minute.  That's certainly enough to cause people to pass out, but not enough to guarantee death, and certainly not for all passengers. 

It would probably not be a fun ride unless you like blacking out a lot.

(http://i.imgur.com/HDYdGuE.jpg)
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: MP-Ryan on December 11, 2013, 11:17:20 pm
I don't think your brain would suffer permanent damage from hypoxia over that duration.

There are a number of factors that determine the precise amount of time the brain can survive without oxygen before permanent damage occurs, but - generally speaking - most people can handle about 4 minutes without breathing with minor or no brain damage resulting following the loss of consciousness.

If there is also rapid cooling - like due to cold water immersion - people can be revived without damage after much longer periods of time.  In young children, there are cases where they have been submerged in cold water without breathing for hours and have been successfully revived.

TL;DR - a very short-term high-G exposure isn't going to kill any healthy individuals due to lack of oxygen alone.
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Dragon on December 12, 2013, 01:47:26 am
High-G exposure doesn't generally kill because of lack of oxygen. Hemorrhaging is what happens during extreme Gs, especially negative ones, while during positive ones, it's usually... well, actually, I dunno. Probably the plane crashing because you blacked out (or got blinded, this is a known side effect of extreme G exposure). I don't think high Gs are a common cause of death, even rockets don't generally exceed 20G. Heck, unless aborting, they rarely get even that. Unmanned Soyuz launches make 5 at most, other rockets probably keep around that value, too (too high TWR is inefficient). You can get around 10G in the Hornet or older F-16s, and that's it. Perhaps also some Russian fighters. I know that even the new F-16s won't let you go above 9, ditto for Raptor (IIRC). In general, in most cases dealing with high Gs (long falls and explosions), you've got bigger problems, such as burns and blunt force trauma.

Really, 10G for 1 minute would kill only if it was applied downward. Human body has a notoriously low tolerance for that. And even then, it'd kill by a hemorrhaging, not hypoxia.
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Mika on December 12, 2013, 03:29:32 pm
I think you are missing one thing here: 10 G onset rate in this case is high. I.e. you don't get a gradual increment of G forces, but almost instantaneous spike from 1 to 10. There is very little time to prepare the body for that, and I suspect that even trained fighter pilots would have trouble with this. It's sort of sad I didn't get to ride the centrifuge myself when I applied to Air Force, but I did get to feel 5Gs momentarily for some seconds in a glider plane 15 years ago. It was hard to lift hands up in the cockpit, but not because they felt heavy, but because they felt more like you had been sleeping over them for some time. It was weird, I always thought things would feel heavier there but it wasn't exactly like that. I don't know whether it would be the same when going around 9Gs and then doing the controlled breathing and summoning all muscle force there is.

I'm not a physician, but the fact that there is much less oxygen carrying medium during a 10 G pull in the brain is also a major factor. But yes, I think the survival rate would be higher than stated, unless all participants are in a frail condition.

On the other hand, this roller coaster would need to ease up the G only a little bit (say a sequence like 5, 7, 8, 9, 7, 6, 4 G loops), and it would really be a cool G tolerance test system for the general population.
Title: Re: The euthenasia roller coaster
Post by: Lorric on December 12, 2013, 03:37:18 pm
but I did get to feel 5Gs momentarily for some seconds in a glider plane 15 years ago. It was hard to lift hands up in the cockpit, but not because they felt heavy, but because they felt more like you had been sleeping over them for some time. It was weird, I always thought things would feel heavier there but it wasn't exactly like that.
Ah yes, I thought it would be heavy too, but it's because the blood is being taken away, isn't it. And like if you wake up and immediately try to do something, you're all weak and feeble because the circulation isn't going properly.