What working in an Antarctic station taught a researcher about isolation | Hacker News Reader

What working in an Antarctic station taught a researcher about isolation

cbc.ca

33 pointspseudolus10 comments

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FTA :

> I personally enjoy computer games. I downloaded one before I left that is essentially infinite

I wonder what game it is... NetHack ?

I wondered the same thing. Rimworld on the ice sheet biome.

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is not technically infinite but I doubt any person has ever completed it fully.

Minecraft comes to mind.

Hopefully it's not alien: isolation or dead space, or he may have trouble sleeping at night.

from the article (it sounds like an alternative beginning for some thing[1] directed by John Carpenter):

> Smith, 33, [...] started preparations for his trip to Antarctica as part of the European Space Agency's research into the long-term effects of isolation and how the body and mind adapt to extreme environments.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAoONl2P8fw

That's a good shout, maybe Dwarf Fortress as well.

2002's "The Thing"

I guess time flies when you have the possibility to play computer games (at least it flies faster than with books or watching TV in my experience).

so was he really all by himself?

> Being honest and talking about my feelings here has a therapeutic effect of its own — both with the crew and my loved ones.

> I have an exercise routine here with another chap on my crew, which is essential for me — both the routine and the exercise.

... I understand the loved ones are at home? but is his crew there?

I'd find this a lot more fascinating if he had nothing but a fax machine that only worked for a window of 15 minutes every fortnight as we did on ships and offshore installations in the 90ies. Take people's phone away today and they're so close to a panic attack they can no longer leave the house. Imagine the horror, the puss, the vomit, the mucus and fecking tears, of being bored for only a few minutes. To me this whole article reads like stuff my generation would have done for fun just for a bet. Society today is so soft (= a soft target for predatory designers of consumerist social systems), and I sound like an angry old man for feeling this way LOL.

Ironic that reading this makes me feel as much alone and isolated as this guy must feel because he is painted as some kind of hero for what is supposed to be just your average level of grit and determination that all of us are capable. Biggest tragedy in this comedy that is also a farce is that most will never believe that they are capable even of the most mediocre of achievements.

I found this lancet article a lot more useful for studying the effects of isolation & quarantine: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

Wonder what's in store for us after the pandemic? People will make headlines for taking a walk?

Isolation by itself can come in many different forms, I'd say. I don't think that all of these metal diagnoses due to isolation really apply to everyone or every situation very well. It's important to consider that some people historically lived very isolated and also some people lived in the middle of civilization, and some did both.

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