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Comment by RcouF1uZ4gsC | Hacker News Reader

It seems that the possibility of death plays a large part in the appeal of something like this. This makes me wonder in the future if we will have VR games that will actually kill you if you fail.

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I'm assuming you meant this but wanted to put it out there - it is not the possibility of death that is the appeal, it is the possibility of cheating death. Small but essential difference.

Having done a bit of risky mountain stuff I quite like the modest risk of dying doing it. Part of my rationalization is you're going to die some day and doing it Bond movie style might be more interesting than Alzheimer's in a hospice. It's also a bit of an FU to the government forcing you to scan your shoes at airports and such like to prevent the 1E-10 chance of you leaving the party early.

Though I despise security theatre as much as the next bloke, I'd say the governments' intentions here are to keep you from making others leave the party early (or at least to give an appearance that they are doing their bit in this regard).

We're playing one right now. Kills you if you succeed, too.

Must be a bug.

All so the AI robots can get some thermal energy.

I was reminded of this quote-of-a-quote from Wikipedia:

> The Italian climber Fosco Maraini argued in his account of the ascent of Gasherbrum IV that while the name of K2 owes its origin to chance, its clipped, impersonal nature is highly appropriate for so remote and challenging a mountain. He concluded that it was:

... just the bare bones of a name, all rock and ice and storm and abyss. It makes no attempt to sound human. It is atoms and stars. It has the nakedness of the world before the first man – or of the cindered planet after the last.

So yes, if that's the kind of mood you get into when climbing that mountain, I don't think reflections about death are very far away...

More seriously, I don't think we'll have deadly VR games: I think the challenge is usually about doing something no-one has done before or going somewhere no-one has been before. Mortal danger is a straight-forward reason why that is the case, but I don't think it's reason to do it on its own: The goal already has to be there and it has to be worthwhile.

As someone attracted to this sort of thing, I have to say that it has nothing at all to do with the risk of death. Putting the fear of death into a simulated experience would do nothing for me. And for the record I would _prefer_ to be able to do extreme mountaineering without the risk of dying. Risk of death just happens to be what comes with the territory when pushing oneself to the limits of endurance.

I'm not sure if it's the possibility of death or just the release of whatever brain chemicals trigger that "rush". I certainly don't want to die when driving fast, but i'm assuming that the feeling I get is at least partially attributable to my brain saying "you are going too fast, you need to slow down".

I don't get this in a sim - even in VR (although it's getting close).

In my experience, the generalization that "it" is about a "rush" isn't the case. For one thing, mountaineering at almost any level, but especially on 8k peaks, is a long, slow, march. There will be some moments that are a rush, but if one is interested in a rush then BASE jumping would be a lot more effective.

The other thing is that mountaineering involves lots of specific skills - rock climbing, ice climbing, long unsupported approaches, self arrest, winter and extreme cold conditions, the ability to acclimate - all of these have to be put together to solve a problem: getting there and back in one piece. And that problem solving, combined with the ability to overcome the mind game of suffering is the motivation for all the mountaineers I know.

Thanks for that perspective. My 'outdoors' experience consists solely of day hikes and snowboarding on marked trails. Nothing even close to those extremes.

Not possibility of death, but the sense of danger. An adventure needs a certain level of danger or it's boring. Then there's the accomplishment, doing something nobody thought of or tried.

You may appreciate this relevant cartoon: http://pbfcomics.com/134/

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