The underground world of hobby tunneling | Hacker News Reader

The underground world of hobby tunneling

bloomberg.com

272 pointsrobinhouston163 comments

If you all enjoy digging hobby tunnels, then can I interest you in someone excavating their basement using only miniature remote control construction vehicles?

Digging & hauling: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=He00d6Gpxs8

More recent rock crusher: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TSaqSzziaE8&t=3m31s

(There's 16 years / 379 videos so far, if you are into RC earthmoving ASMR)

How interesting.

I stumbled across it years ago, and it's always struck me as quintessential original-YouTube content: someone, somewhere, doing a thing that makes them happy and they'd like to share.

That is my favorite era and genre of YT. Someone doing something they love and recording it.

I don't mind if the channel grows and gets better editing or whatnot. I just like the purity of it.

You still can find a lot of stuff today. The "culture" of YT has changed a bit but you can still people doing their passion.

I'm currently watching Andrew Caramata. He does heavy machinery / property restoration and was previously working on a container castle but now has a mountaintop in upstate NY and is currently using the exact same tools you showed off originally - crushing some rock to build out some roads. Now that I think of it, this autoplayed after your video! I've followed Caramata for years though so nice seeing him still making progress.

I had [a YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/howchoo) that hit 25k subscribers from only about 20-25 videos. I worked happily at it for a few years off and on, but the economics of YouTube didn’t make sense for the amount of time I was spending, despite loving doing it. Love is not enough; I love doing a lot of things but only have so many hours in the day. It would’ve been great if YouTube paid enough for me to do it full time without having to chase likes, subscribers, and sponsors. Then I would be at a few hundred videos. So yeah, screw YouTube.

But I learned a lot and got to invent a lot of cool stuff—like turning a Furby into an Amazon Echo, building a rugged arcade cabinet in a case, being the first to put a Raspberry Pi into an NES cartridge, etc. Hoping to return someday with a new channel once I can afford to not get paid anything to make the videos (albeit on a new channel; we sold Howchoo, and the channel was sold with it)

Oh my. I’ve fantasized about this for years. I assumed that physics would not be on my side for this one. I am going to be watching these tonight.

HN Automate it?

You need lots of construction bots, so get your green circuit production working better

It's the 21st Century already. We just add processing modules into everything.

$5K for one of those models!

The channel is definitely one of the most out there channels and simply delightful isn’t it? It takes this whole pattern of civilization, digging, and just turns it into absurdist theater. I love it.

And this channel has been active for 16 years already (the first video was posted in Dec 2007).

Because I was curious for context, YouTube was launched in 2005 and bought by Google in 2006.

So amazing the creator has been continuously posting on one topic on the platform for that long.

This was a wild recommemdation

> Ritchie isn’t digging with any destination in mind; he digs for the pure joy and meditation that comes with it.

> “I just feel like a kid again,” Ritchie said. “It really puts me in the moment and relieves stress.”

In a world saturated with "productivity porn" and side hustles, I just absolutely love that.

I’m nearing 40 and when I’m at any beach with sand you better believe I’m gonna see how deep I can dig a hole. Brings back a lot of that childhood joy of being absolutely certain I was almost about to dig through the earth’s crust once it started to get hard.

Only about 19.999 miles short if we’re talking about averages.

Building a dam on a stream can be like this too.

For 10 years I’ve been building hotspring pools at one spring. The material you add gets coated in limestone deposits pretty quickly. So it really feels like building a legacy for my young ones to play in when they’re older.

Careful, generally, diverting or otherwise messing with the flow of waterways is illegal. Got a talking to from a DNR officer when I was a kid.

Not just illegal, the potential impact on a waterbed is huge. I spoke at length with a BLM hydrologist about this, artificial deepening of discrete hot spring pools can and has caused entire areas to wash out into a uniform warm muck.

Y’all realize they change all the time, right?

I'm sure you know much more about natural rates of mineral deposition and erosion and the potential effects of altering them than a literal industry professional with decades of experience.

Those terrorist bevers must be stopped at all costs.

You’re joking, but there is concern about the environmental damage beavers cause.

https://courses.hamilton.edu/beavers/conservation-and-destru...

Ok I'll bite.

How did the world survive for millions of years with bevers around before we killed most of them on every continent?

Just to play devil's advocate: the first algae were extremely damaging to the environment by releasing toxic oxygen. Of course, that took millions of years to take effect.

So beavers could in principle also be damaging, but taking a long time to kill. (And, of course, nowadays a lot of organisms have come to depend on the once-toxic emissions of algae. Beavers might have a similar effect on the ecosystem.)

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event

Killing off nearly all the wolves, mountain lions, lynx, bears, coyotes, foxes, etc, is probably a good chunk of the problem when talking about small mammal populations.

They must be stopped!

The environment causes environmental damage as part of the natural cycle of life.

Christ, enough of the anti-beaver comments. Beavers co-evolved with species and their environment for a long time and (were) part of the eco system before we nearly eradicated them like we did many other species. From the article you linked:

> Even though the beaver destroys life, its actions give way to new life and help conserve the overall environment. The positive effects of the beaver on its environment far outweigh the negative effects.

That depends how much alternative space there is in the ecosystem. Just because the species could evolve together in an entire wilderness doesn’t mean they can co-exist in every square kilometer.

Relevant: https://lettersofnote.com/2012/07/12/regarding-your-dam-comp...

You say 'generally', but then talk about officials of one very specific country?

Yes, probably only relevant to 80% of his potential readers. What tosh!

Less than 50%, actually, though I doubt that it's true that it only applies to the US. Children usually get a free pass because their meddling is ineffective or impermanent.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230515211304/https://toolhub.t...

And furthermore, they're too busy writing tickets to the beavers, who are doing the real damage.

Not on this forum. The industriousness of the hacker news kids is legend.

Right, we didn't get a ticket. But a handful of 13 year old boys can move some pretty big logs and trees.

It was made very clear that we were not to fuck with the creek or any other waterways, and it was serious business. We had to rip the dam apart and he told us to never do it again.

Fascinating data, thanks!

We’ll build trenches from the waterline to see how far into the beach can make water flow.

A good mash-up in building beach holes and water play.

I’m in the same age bracket and hole-digging enthusiasm bracket as you but recently became aware of the dangers of this whimsical pastime! [1]

That’s not to dissuade you or anyone else from doing it (I have continued!), but I think everyone should be aware of the very real danger. As they say, knowing is half the battle!

1 - https://www.npr.org/2022/05/19/1100068725/beach-holes-sand-c...

Absolutely, I had a near-death experience myself.

People digging holes on public beaches should fill them up again so other people don't risk getting injured.

We have different definitions of "real danger"

I mean, I’m just saying the danger exists (which is what “real” means to me) and people should be aware of it. Not that people shouldn’t dig big holes. I thought that was clear in my original comment but evidently not.

Real danger is something that is likely to happen. The sorts of things that end up on "top ten weird deaths" youtube videos aren't in that category.

I'm past 40, my older child is 9.

First time I went to the beach with her, I had this sudden memory blast: we should dig a hole. It is indeed a weirdly satisfying feeling which I had forgotten.

The fact that digging a hole on the beach somehow summons children and adults both out of thin air excited about the project and offering to help is something I love oh so much.

The best I've done was a three tier well rounded circle about 15 feet across and it took the better part of two days for an entire house party size crew to dig. In tiers because it was sunken seating around an even more sunken firepit, to keep it out of the wind and solve the smoke-in-faces problem. While sitting on the first level your shoulders would be level with the surrounding ground. Far enough back to be above the tide, and when not in use we put traffic cones around it so it would be at least a little obvious in the dark and not a death pit. Filling it in at the end of our trip was a ballache but the only proper thing to do.

If you dig it right, you might end up on the news as a “cosmic event”!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hole-dublin-...

“Get a hobby: work with rocks and cement like John Dunsworth”[0] - you can tell that this actor really dug it!

[0]: https://youtu.be/3mcQfP8k51s?si=UQCa_-tzkSDoEvMl

John Dunsworth was such a gem. Arguably the best portrayal of alcoholism on-screen ever. One of the kindest people ever, according to absolutely everyone. Brilliant actor, and an excellent stonemason privately. He explicitly wanted his hobbies to outlive him.

For those who don't know, John played Jim Lahey in the surprisingly excellent series "Trailer Park Boys". Give it a watch, you may be surprised.

Trailer Park Boys kind of needs to be watched after midnight.

No, just get high.

Honestly, the episode where bubbles gets a mountain lion is to my favorite episode of any television show. High or not.

Not really my thing, although I respect others right to make their own choices.

Being up at 1am after a full day makes for about the same mental state though.

Doug French

I'll admit that I've enjoyed many an episode following Lahey's example.

It does improve the show

The one where Ricky replaces the towel holder in a lady's bathroom is pretty great also.

I have a crawlspace under half my house, and made the mistake of watching a YouTube video about how to do "underpinning". Now I want to dig it out down to 10ft to use for some desperately needed storage space, maybe some gym space. Our local building office is amazingly supportive of DIYers, and I appreciate them double checking my work.

You don’t need to dig it out to get more storage space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3mVnRlQLU

I knew what video that was before clicking...

If you ever get a chance to visit him in Berkeley, I thoroughly recommend doing so. Not only can you stock up on Klein bottles and scarves, but the man's an absolute treasure and delight, and, depending on how old you were when _The Cuckoo's Egg_ was published, perhaps one of your childhood heroes. I have one of his bottles right here on my desk.

I read The Cuckoo's Egg only a few years ago (in my 30s) and it's an absolute delight. Easy to understand if you do any sort of linux administration, and really demonstrates how lax things were and how far we've come in terms of cyber security.

You got CliffRolled.

At the time that video came out, I highly considered something like that, but honestly I'm already using that space, I just need more of it. :-)

Unless I'm mistaken, we both read the same physical copy of Cliff's book back in '99. Talk about a small world, running across this comment was wild.

Oh man, don't send me down this rabbit hole! I've always been annoyed at the original builders of my house for the half basement/half crawlspace - I mean, how much could it have possibly added to the cost of construction to just dig that last 4 feet on the other half?!

My Grandfather’s house was like that when he bought it. It was built on a hill that sloped down from the street. The ground floor was actually several feet below the level of the street, with just enough crawl space at the front edge of the house. He jacked the whole house up to street level, dug out the basement, poured a concrete slab under the whole house, built concrete block walls around the whole thing, and built a staircase up to the main hall on the ground floor. Half of the new floor became a basement workshop, and the other half became four bedrooms and a bathroom for the children (there were only three bedrooms upstairs). Even then six of the children were still sharing a room.

Amazing productivity.

Yea, he knew how to get things done. Plus he had some children helping.

The 4 feet can make a big difference, think of the highest possible groundwater table.

Build yourself an iceberg home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLJ0zZQb9x0

I did that in a low basement once. I had to replace the crumbled concrete floor anyway, so I figured I’d dig it down a foot or two while I was at it… then I found out the house was sitting on a shale ledge.

Turns out excavating shale by hand or with a jack hammer is incredibly difficult! It breaks into tiny pieces, bit by bit. Then you have to shovel said pieces into buckets and haul them out. Really heavy buckets because rocks.

One of the few jobs I threw in the towel and hired out. It still took 3 people 2 days to dig out about 18 inches. Never again!

“An engineer dubbed 'the Mole Man' spent 40 years digging tunnels under his London home. After it was abandoned, an artist transformed it into a subterranean studio.”

https://www.businessinsider.com/mole-man-house-london-artist...

The Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, CA, is the OG version of this hobby or obsession.

https://youtu.be/mUKRPoQKynk?si=6mO7VIlwti-h_DKp

Just visited there last year. It is really quite cool.

Youtuber Colin Furze is in the midst of some underground shenanigans and I really love watching him.

I do recommend his videos. He's got a very strong personality that may be to the disliking of some (including myself initially) but the more I watch the more I think it's genuine and have even come to enjoy it. But his work ethic and "just do it" attitude are really inspiring in a way. I was glad to see him called out in the article.

I love that he doesn't force content. It's ready when it's ready. He does have a newish channel "2 Much ColinFurze" which I like. It's less polished content, but I enjoy it.

Shh, that’s supposed to be a secret tunnel/underground garage!

Philosopher Susan Wolf talks about the "meaningful life" as, "lives of active engagement in projects of worth." A classic example that is given about how important both are is the idea that while one can actively engage in digging a hole in their backyard, it won't lead to a "meaningful life" because it's not a "project of worth."

This hobby I suppose could serve either as a strong counterpoint, or would reveal a whole bunch of empty souls. Up to you to decide which.

Is it ironic to pick up a hobby of digging a hole to fill that hole in your soul? For some of these people, it could be "meaningful" enough - after all, meaning and value are subjective. Or, perhaps the very meaninglessness has value for them, like a game without a practical purpose.

The nihilistic view is that nothing matters anyways. The sun will die. It doesn’t matter if you are Bill Gates. In 1,000 years, most traces of our existence would have been forgotten. Look at the ancient kingdoms and rulers. Sure, the pharaohs we care about, but some random king elsewhere? Maybe not.

That's the nihilistic future. The optimistic future sees the human raise up further and further and beyond the solar system. Not as humans anymore, but evolved. There is no limit.

this is the final frontier. we've conquered the land, the oceans, the skies. some people live in orbit, men have walked on the moon.

but you can still carve out a new world for yourself. you can still go down. there's enough room down there for a whole new world, with different borders and nations. and another one below that .. layers and layers like an onion. one hundred billion mole-men, saturating the earth's crust --

Futurama's (old) New York. But that's the domain of the sewer mutants. They flush their unwanted reptilian pets to the sub-sewer, where they become monsters.

There is even precedent: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220810-derinkuyu-turkey...

Beware that those down there, don't turn into Morlocks.

I was promised an Iron Mole in "At the Earth's Core". Where is my drill tank?

We haven’t conquered the ocean below sea-level, really.

thought your comment was going to become a quote from the Artilleryman from Jeff Waynes musical version of War of the Worlds!

"We're gonna build a whole new world for ourselves. Look, they clap eyes on us and we're dead, right? So we gotta make a new life where they'll never find us. You know where? Underground. You should see it down there – hundreds of miles of drains – sweet and clean now after the rain, dark, quiet, safe. We can build houses and everything, start again from scratch. And what's so bad about living underground, eh? It's not been so great living up here, if you want my opinion."

That was exactly the association I had when I read it!

Minecraft addiction in real life

The children yearn for the mines.

This is awesome Sandland got some mainstream news. I look at them as a hackerspace with professional members, and sometimes mining engineers. Not mentioned is City Museum in St Louis. They let little kids roam the tunnels!

Colin Furze gets a mention in the article. If you enjoy this kind of content his recent videos (and his “too much Colin Furze” extra channel) are good fun.

I love the story of William "Burro" Schmidt.

He was a miner in California. He had a reason, somewhat flimsy, to dig a half-mile tunnel through a mountain. Nominally it was to connect his mining claims to a smelter.

He started digging the tunnel, by hand, on his own, with pick-axe and dynamite. And, once started, he kept going, straight through granite, for thirty-eight years!

Finally he succeeded. He got to the other side.

It must have been a disorienting feeling -- "I've been digging for thirty-eight years, and I've achieved my goal. What do I do now?"

You'd think that maybe he'd finally start to set up his mine and run cars full of ore through the tunnel. That was the point, right? The whole justification for the project?

Nope. He sold his claim and walked away.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burro_Schmidt_Tunnel

It's the most wonderful, absurd, existentialist story, and it's real.

I forget where I first read it. This telling looks like it captures the right feeling:

https://yankeebarbareno.com/2014/04/13/burro-schmidt-tunnel-...

There’s an old myth that Seymour Cray used to dig tunnels in his backyard.

John Rollwagen put the story about while chairman of Cray Research:

https://web.archive.org/web/20080521163217/http://www.time.c...

http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby/writing/PCW/cray.htm .

There is at least one report that it was indeed just mythmaking, though: https://boingboing.net/2006/08/10/seymour-cray-liked-t.html .

Wikipedia agrees, with sources too: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_tunneling

I somehow understand why builsing infite space under your house is weirdly calming.

why

See also https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamson_Tunnels from 1810..1830

There are three completely different theories as to why he built them - prepping for the end times, philanthropy towards the unemployed, and secretly quarrying where he didn't have the mineral rights.

A friend of mine said in Moscow Russia people use to dig basements under precast concrete car size storage units. Every once in a while the the whole unit would fall in the hole halfway or more.

Water wells using concrete rings, same thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuo1zsabKKI

I've done that it is amazingly effective. Also pretty weird to start on Monday at ground level and by Wednesday afternoon you realize you will need a longer ladder. Also interesting how quick you strike water but then you're not done yet so for a while you need to get rid of the water faster than it flows in.

Here's a video about those Soviet cellars. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I_zvj4R5DaY

It's wild to me that people would do this in the city right near their apartment building.

This article reminds me of 3 Alarm Lamp Scooter:

https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/39/

Such a sad yet interesting story.

More information[1][2] about 3 alarm lamp scooter and the accidental death case. What a story, Daniel clearly is “insanely” smart, and he gave a few talks at various conferences like Defcon. One such talk was about Bitcoin[3] very early and he makes some damn good arguments. Would be fascinating to hear from him today after his prison time. I assume he still has Bitcoin so money is probably not a concern.

[1] https://apnews.com/article/fires-maryland-45dc0979edcf441880...

[2] https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2022/07/a-bethesda-man-co...

[3] https://youtu.be/Yj2blBX2iBw

Thanks for linking the Bitcoin talk I’ll check it out.

$8 a bitcoin when he gave the talk. Dear lord!

I wonder if there's DNA markers that predispose people to this type of "hobby". There's evidence that humans lived in caves and underground bunkers for extended periods of time. There's even ancient underground cities with dedicated water sources and ventilation systems.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derinkuyu_underground_city

Great notion! Are there any projects or publications attemtping to map preferences like 'invigorated by mountainous forests', 'enjoys building and living in underground tunnels', etc to DNA markers? It seems plausible that these preferences could be genetically embedded based on ancestors' living conditions.

There is certainly some psychological component at play. One of my favorite childhood memories is of me and my cousin digging tunnels for our hotwheels cars in a 10' mound of dirt my grandpa had hauled in. I recently tried this new Enshrouded game with another friend and we dug a tunnel for our base (for no reason). I just find it... cozy?

I think ancestral cave dwelling may for sure be a factor here, wrt evolutionary psychology (a scientific domain I wish was not as primitive)

From 2015

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9783972

Thanks! Macroexpanded:

Hobby Tunneling - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36885802 - July 2023 (13 comments)

Hobby Tunneling - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28257515 - Aug 2021 (6 comments)

Hobby Tunneling - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24078638 - Aug 2020 (2 comments)

The ‘Unfathomable’ Pursuit of Personal Tunneling - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9783972 - June 2015 (39 comments)

Honorable mentions (but no comments there):

After 40 years' burrowing, Mole Man of Hackney is ordered to stop - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17459816 - July 2018 (0 comments)

The Mole Man of Hackney - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10833865 - Jan 2016 (0 comments)

Here's a really interesting one.

(sort by oldest, third video onwards) - https://www.youtube.com/@Paleas/videos

Tradie somewhere in QLD, I am guessing. Perhaps underneath a condo or small hotel.

At some point, they become a bit 'psytrance music video', from what I remember.

Judging by later videos his tunnel collapsed (no casualties) and he moved to some other outdoor location and activities.

I can’t imagine this being safe at all in a city, with the amount of underground infrastructure and weight of buildings, houses, sidewalks and pavement all around you. Seems irresponsible.

Oh absolutely.

I'm surprised that no-one located (somehow) and reported him before then.

I'm sure the digger would say that it's just rubble (nothing structural) he was touching, but there are of course plenty of issues & it's besides the point / could be incorrect anyway.

I wish I could do this but living in central North Carolina it would probably fill up with water in days.

DO NOT try this lol you will drown

Like you’re from N.C. and know it will fill up with water or just a general warning?

Everything floods here. I’m, depending on exactly what direction draw the line in, about 25-100miles inland, and my whole town is only about 10ft above sea level. If I travel farther inland it’ll rise a bit, but not that much, and the soil is full of clay and doesn’t drain well.

It’s a wet and muddy state.

Honest question: aren't people afraid of cave ins?

Yes. The people who do this and actually get far are painfully aware of the risks of cave ins. You can do a whole lot to protect yourself but it is always a danger that's looming.

The missing soundtrack to this article https://youtu.be/34CZjsEI1yU?si=HWSwnEf8o6_ehuo7

Famous tunneler: Seymour Cray ( https://shop.minimuseum.com/blogs/specimens/cray-supercomput... )

In his spare time, Cray dug a massive tunnel under his house, complete with a periscope, and joked that elves in the tunnel would help him solve whatever computer problem he was faced with. As Cray himself once said: "I'm up in the Wisconsin woods, and there are elves in the woods. So when they see me leave, they come into my office and solve all the problems I'm having. Then I go back up and work some more."

"The cave digger" is a nice documentary on Ra Paulette, who was somewhat addicted to digging elaborately decorated caves in soft rock. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n_bHcZaGJs

A classic and tech relevant example - https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,967...

> Technology: Just Dig While You Work - Monday, Mar. 28, 1988

> Where does the world's foremost designer of high-speed computers get his inspiration? Apparently deep in a dirt tunnel beneath his Wisconsin home, according to John Rollwagen, the chairman of Cray Research. As Rollwagen tells it, Seymour Cray, the company's elusive founder, has been dividing his time between building the next generation of supercomputers and digging an underground tunnel that starts below his Chippewa Falls house and heads toward the nearby woods. "He's been working at it for some time now," says Rollwagen, who reports that the tunnel is 8 ft. high, 4 ft. wide and lined with 4-by-4 cedar boards. When a tree fell through the top of the tunnel several years ago, Cray used the opening to install a periscope-equipped lookout.

> For Cray, the excavation project is more than a simple diversion. "I work when I'm at home," he recently told a visiting scientist. "I work for three hours, and then I get stumped, and I'm not making progress. So I quit, and I go and work in the tunnel. It takes me an hour or so to dig four inches and put in the 4-by-4s. Now, as you can see, I'm up in the Wisconsin woods, and there are elves in the woods. So when they see me leave, they come into my office and solve all the problems I'm having. Then I go back up and work some more."

> Rollwagen knows that Cray is only half kidding and that some of the designer's greatest inspirations come when he is digging. Says the chairman: "The real work happens when Seymour is in the tunnel."

---

Part of the diagram of the tunnels can be seen at Computer History Museum - The Cray Way from the Revolution Exhibition :: https://youtu.be/MQYGPAZJZ-s?si=dTy6gxtgqDSFuLIk&t=172

https://www.odditycentral.com/news/man-digs-40-meter-deep-ho...

This guy dug 40m down from his kitchen and died.

I’m not the kind of person that believes in the devil. But if I was I feel like this guys dreams would be a data point.

I remember when I was a kid, there was an empty plot of land next to my Grandma's house. My cousins and I took a shovel to it for a couple of days over the summer and dug out a decent sized hole (well, for kids, at least). There really is something just therapeutic about it.

> TikTok’s “Tunnel Girl” has focused fresh attention on the amateur excavators who build their own underground infrastructure — often in defiance of local laws.

Gotta love we’re at the point where digging a tunnel on your own land, which you own, is illegal lol

If it is in a suburban area (as is the case with the creator mentioned in your quote) a collapse would put surrounding properties at risk

Right, in a sense, we all own the infra they're endangering.

Now out on the farm, maybe do what you want.

Not just that but part of why planning exists in the first place is so they can verify things like that there aren't buried unmarked sewer lines or gas mains back there.

Yes, I'd totally hate my house collapsing over me and my family because the neighboor excavated the rocks that were keeping my house's foundations stable in place.

I assume heavily changing the water infiltration/leaking paths could also have significant effects on how the ground behaves even outside of the area that is worked on.

PS: My dumb brain 30min after waking up: "surrounding properties" + "value" + "at risk" was the phrase I first read from your comment.

You need permits to dig a tunnel in Herndon (VA), so it’s not illegal. Similar to any major construction on your home. She didn’t secure them beforehand.

Except she’s digging it in 200sqft of urban housing backyard in Herndon, VA USA. If you have 10 acres and want to dig a hole, go for it. But if you want to dig a tunnel in your backyard and your two neighbors houses are 100ft or less away… yeah, I would think twice.

Even if you're in the middle of nowhere, people expect to be rescued if something goes wrong... sort of like that Titan submersible. In the abstract it's fine to take huge risks, but it sucks when people implicitly turn those costs over when something goes wrong.

You can say the same about any hobby that is more dangerous than sitting in the sofa. We would need to make it illegal to do any type of diving, climbing of mountains, skiing off-pist etc.

Or instead of illegal, limit mandatory rescuing, or have people to pay for it themself. Btw. no one will rescue you, if you need help above 7000 m. (unless you made special arrangements with somebody)

Or, just don't change much. And as far as I know, in many states around the world, you will have to pay for helicopter rescue, unless your insurance covers it (but the insurance fee is really not that much).

Yes, I agree. Same with boating just for fun. Let the people drown or pay to be rescued. They took a risk choosing to be on the water. They should pay the price for that risk.

A badly-dug tunnel can be a huge risk to your neighbors' properties, as well as to any underground infrastructure in the area.

And to the poor people who have to risk their lives getting you or your corpse out.

Digging can affect utilities, water drainage, cause subsidence… of course it’s illegal, unless you get a permit. If you want to dig without a permit go to some place in the middle of nowhere.

Modifications to structures and land in almost all developed economies is subject to planning law. Even something as apparently free as rainfall collection can be subject to regulation. It can be encouraged or discouraged, depending.

> “At the point”

There are many things you cannot do on your property, and that has been true for a long long time.

Building regulations exist for thousand of years and for good reasons ...

lol

wait until you find out what happened when the temple of damanhur was discovered

it's for a good reason; many people who tunnel don't know how to make tunnels safe, and there's lots of collateral damage when they fail.

OMG, that's - literally - a big rabbit hole to dig into. I started with the linked video of "ColinFurze" earlier today and I'm still fascinated and watching...

Before clicking into the actual article, I wondered (just from the title alone) if bloomberg suddenly started to cover shadowsocks or something.... lol

Repeat of:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39189796

This American Life has an episode about a guy in Canada that did this for similarly vague reasons.

Are these people digging the whole thing by hand? It sounds exhausting.

Darwin Awards material. I was thinking yeah give your house (most of your wealth for most people) subsidence yay! But in the article they point out yeah you can get poisoned or drown. Great.

Clear evidence of moles reincarnating as humans.

No jab at Elon and his Boring Company?

Looks more like an underground bunker.

Good way to get a darwin award.

Most of the worlds miners are artisanal, millions still do this for a living present day.

Often you can pay a nominal amount to go down into their (illegal) mine. I did get stuck because my western legs were to long to climb out the 10m shaft, I'd go to step into the leghold dug in the red earth but my knee would hit the side.

The reporter who shut down Kala is a pretty awful person (from their past work). Everyone following knew Kala wasn't going to have the paperwork. The reporter enjoyed going about it in a nasty way, which is sad, but that's a lot of todays media.

There are other tunneling TikToks out there.

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