Antarctic scientists beg for help after assault and death threats from colleague | Hacker News Reader

Antarctic scientists beg for help after assault and death threats from colleague

independent.co.uk

43 pointspseudolus20 comments

Having read many articles like this one is reason to believe the fantasy of colonizing Mars is not going to go well. Humans in isolation is not good for the psyche(generally speaking)

That and the complete lack of resources and hospitable terrain. It drives me crazy when space gets compared to the new world. But yeah the isolation alone is no joke.

On the ISS astronauts can call their family members but I think there is a 20 minute communication lag between us and Mars?

The astronauts for ISS have many months (years?) of specialized training for the mission, including how to handle the environment for their time there, as far as I understand. They are not going to colonize space.

Colonizing Mars means a lot less training -if any- for many more people, and not being able to train(properly mentally prepare for the hardships and emergencies that could be encountered) for a permanent/long-term move to an inhospitable environment that will not allow groups or individuals involved in irreconcilable differences/hostilities to easily migrate to an area with life sustaining resources or count on rescue. It's not a stretch to think if there are issues with a couple critical consecutive re-supply missions(or even if there are no issues) it could easliy get very Lord of the Flies-ish.

That is putting it rather mildly.

Isolation directly impacts the supercritical state of what we call consciousness/perception. This is why it is a primary component in torture for thought reform which is all about imposing psychological stress to the point of involuntary hypnosis.

The Chinese discovered this during Mao, and literally everyone has used what was learned since. Coercion and compulsion use the same mechanism(structure).

Rationality unravels when your subconscious is in a inconsistent internal state. The best movie I've seen touching on depicting those states is Pandorum. The people there jump at the slightest shadow imagining the worse, and reacting violently; completely unhinged and is only brought into stable interactions by an external threat.

This regression happens when there is no legitimate reflected appraisal, and is accelerated when it is distorted causing an inconsistent internal state. Some people are more resilient than others, often those of higher innate intelligence/principle (not education) do better; and there is never a complete recovery.

The psyche literally fractures, as a function of time and exposure. Everyone that is human breaks; always.

Dissociative or Psychosis.

No feedback is still a form of feedback; just one that diverges. Scary thing, social media echo chambers driven by bots do the exact same (crazy-making/inducing behaviors).

That aside, I read this article and was thinking oh, did the ice worms thaw out? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAIRiacSSos

> The Chinese discovered this during Mao,

And the Americans perfected it during Bush.

What did Bush add to the process that was significantly new? Aside from just standing and watching dumbfounded in front of a bunch of children.

The US may have used existing knowledge, but 'perfected' requires something more, and it certainly wasn't during Bush.

Its also just muddying the water, when you have two major powers that have been involved in almost a century of targeted subversion, and irregular warfare targeting the children.

Can you really call a person American when they abandon constitutionally founded values in favor of Maoism (DEI,Woke,Cancel Culture). Its terribly unclear.

> The best movie I've seen touching on depicting those states is Pandorum.

Unrelated, but there's a fan theory that the amnesia from the hibernation pods isn't a side effect, but a deliberately induced mechanism to keep the sickness at bay.

https://old.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/gmlo53/pandoru...

They should check for a tiny spaceship being built out in the supply shack.

> The team is completely blocked off on a base where the typical winter temperature is -23C and wind speeds can reach nearly 150mph.

But it's summer now?

Summer in the northern hemisphere = winter in southern hemisphere

You'd be surprised how many people don't know this. When I first started working for a multinational it created considerable confusion.

I have workmates in the US who say "we plan to have this done by summer". Fortunately, it only seems that US workmates use seasons as time boundaries.

It's not that they don't know this, it's that it's currently summer in the southern hemisphere. The original comment is correct. It's boiling in Australia at the moment.

I am aware, I live in Brisbane, Queensland. Beautiful one day, Faux Cyclone the next.

Yes, and right now it's late winter (almost the spring equinox) in the northern hemisphere making it late summer in the southern hemisphere. The article's mention of the winter temperatures and winds comes across as a non sequitur.

I thought the equinox implies that we are midway between summer and winter, so either is fair game. Given the climate crisis it's not unexpected to have massive swings in either direction either. Where I am is was 20 C colder yesterday

Yes... thus making it currently summer in the southern hemisphere. As someone who is sweltering in 35 degree heart this week in the southern hemisphere, I assure you it's summer. Maybe technically Autumn but certainly not winter.

COVID lockdown divorces come to mind.

Reminds me of when one guy stabbed another at Bellingshausen...

Man faces attempted murder charge after stabbing at Russia's Antarctic outpost (2018)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/24/antarctic-stab...

Such things are near constant background risk for all isolated area, small crew extended missions. There are rare but steady tales of things like a three month ocean seismic survey job being interrupted by, say, a cook going troppo and hurling knives with intent, or somesuch.

Occasionally you just have to sit on people until they either calm down or you can work out a way to isolate or otherwise secure them until landfall or relief arrives.

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