Spanish climber emerges after 500 days in cave

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/spain-cave-500-days-beatriz-flamini-1.6810428

by colinprince • 3 years ago

341 248 3 years ago

Great commitment shown by the Athelete, (especially around the no communication whatsoever rule , even when death in family , wow) the article however never goes into the details on the motivations for taking on this challenge in the first place, but good to know science can lean on the experience and learn more about the human mind and the circadian rhythm. It was also surprising to me that the previous record for being trapped underground was those children from Chile and Bolivia stuck after the mine collapse in Chile in 2010.

cs7022• 3 years ago

The climber, a woman, spent those 500 days alone inside the cave voluntarily, as part of an experiment.

It takes a special kind of person to volunteer for that and follow through with it.

I don't think I could stay alone in a cave for 100 days and emerge with my sanity intact, forget about 500.

lm28469• 3 years ago

It reminded me of Michel Siffre, weird that there are no mentions of him in the article

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Siffre

jdmtheNth• 3 years ago

She's the type of person you want to send to Mars.

rurban3• 3 years ago

Mars will be much harder.

No chance to survive, hard radiation, rescue would need at least a year.

hammyhavoc3• 3 years ago

I'd go quite willingly. I'd probably enjoy it.

qwertox3• 3 years ago

Really? The no-sun condition would drive me insane.

loeg2• 3 years ago

If you can go 7 days you can probably do 500.

egman_ekki• 3 years ago

You might want to watch Alone reality show. It can get tougher with time. It’s not easy to be alone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_(TV_series)

germandiago• 3 years ago

Probably she is saner than us with so many social networks around now. Haha.

988747• 3 years ago

She had WiFi in there...

treeman79• 3 years ago

A Russian fled to Siberia, or they had no contact with anyone for decades. The father’s brother was executed in front of him due to Stalins religious persecution. So they were motivated to stay hidden.

They could see satellites, overtime, and figured what those were. Understanding that rocket tech had continue to advance. Plastic wrap, however blew their minds.

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/12/russia-recluse...

sillysaurusx2• 3 years ago

I was reading about a Buddhist ritual for self mummification. The final phase involved being voluntarily lowered into the ground in a lotus position until they die.

It’s quite amazing what the human mind can do. Especially when you’re crazy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu

cplusplusfellow• 3 years ago

The practitioners of sokushinbutsu did not view this practice as an act of suicide, but rather as a form of further enlightenment.[14]

At what point do we consider this a mental illness rather than some higher ascent?

cs7022• 3 years ago

It’s quite amazing what the human mind can do. Especially when you’re crazy.

or brainwashed.

dhosek• 3 years ago

I have to admit that to me, this actually sounds quite nice. She had books, fresh food and clean clothes were sent down to her. I would totally do this.

oh_sigh• 3 years ago

Did she do it as part of an experiment, or did she decide to do it, and then they made an experiment out of it?

aksss• 3 years ago

Had he an eagle and a snake as companions?

dmckeon• 3 years ago

Similar previous research: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefania_Follini spent 130 days underground, isolated from external clues about time and circadian rhythms. Her sleep cycle lengthened a lot.

joshuahedlund• 3 years ago

Thanks for sharing, I had not heard of that - that has fascinating implications for humans inhabiting planets with different rotation periods! (I'm surprised I haven't seen that explored in more sci-fi)

jgilias2• 3 years ago

Super interesting, thanks for sharing! The 20/10 wake/sleep cycle sounds close to how I might function if it wasn’t for daylight cycles and social obligations. Actually, mostly the latter.

f_allwein2• 3 years ago

Have you tried this? https://xkcd.com/320/

IIsi50MHz• 3 years ago

I did 21/9 during college. It was great! When bedtime came, I was actually tired, and thus fell asleep quickly. I was in sync with the world every four days. My work and school schedules were such that once per week I'd have to skip sleep, but I seemed to suffer no apparent deficit.

When on a standard cycle, I'd lie awake in bed bored out of my mind for _hours_ upon hours, fall asleep with only time for 0.3 to 2.5 sleep cycles, wake up in sleep-deprived pain and misery. (X_X)

In recent years, I deal with the standard cycle with the various in-vogue things like scheduled bluelight blocking, zero-lux bedroom (cities at night are so fekking bright compared to when I was a child), and sometimes morning-only caffeine sources.

I miss my 21/9.

skilled8• 3 years ago

It looks impressive at first glance, but it's really not that impressive.

It sounds like everything had been taken care of for her, which simply means the person was "crazy" enough to commit herself to an experience that a lot of people either wouldn't want to do, or didn't have the time to do. The article does not mention it, but I am sure this person has her life structured in a way where she was able to (financial and responsibility wise) do this without a second thought because "being quiet" is also part of her personality.

Not to discount her record or anything, but it's nothing more than a record.

---

I don't mind the downvotes btw, but let me just point out that Yogis live in caves for 30 years at a time, and good luck earning their trust to let some scientists monitor real changes in the mind.

And these Yogis do so without any assistance from the external world. That sounds a bit more impressive to me.

steve_adams_86• 3 years ago

What is impressive?

skilled8• 3 years ago

See edit.

alfor• 3 years ago

That’s what I thought too, many monks and nuns did way more as religious devotion.

vlunkr3• 3 years ago

Was the point to impress, or to be a research subject?

skilled8• 3 years ago

But was it really to be a research subject? My guess is that no, it was not. And I am confident in that guess because I understand people and people's behavior.

And if you read the article, there is no mention of any conclusive research or any insight at all. But I guess it must have been _exactly_ 500 days for her to be in that cave for the scientists to finally start drawing some conclusions.

nemo44x2• 3 years ago

Not to discount her record or anything,

You just spent the previous paragraph and opening line literally discounting it.

skilled8• 3 years ago

Yeah because it’s nothing but a record. Not sure what else you want me to say.

Feel free to enlighten me if it is something else. The article does not mention it.

tssva2• 3 years ago

let me just point out that Yogis live in caves for 30 years at a time

Yogis well known to leave their caves in order to gather picnic baskets.

skilled8• 3 years ago

Doesn’t sound all that impressive.

exolymph• 3 years ago

All of that is pretty fucking impressive? Why do you feel like the appropriate comparison point is lifelong dedicated yogis rather than normals

skilled8• 3 years ago

What comparison? My original statement stands.

renewiltord• 3 years ago

That's nothing. I've lived in a cave for 125 years and without contact with the world. Unfortunately, I came out on April Fools' Day a couple of years ago so no one believed me. Next day I made a Hacker News account. Now that's impressive. Not this puny yogi shit.

sam36• 3 years ago

I think the key here is "voluntarily".

Everyone is built different, I think I would have done good in a similar situation. I'm already an introvert, but having kids, a wife and bills to pay sometimes just gets overwhelming. I have a friend that has been in and out of jail for the last 10 years or so. We talk a few times a year (at my expense) and I hate to admit I sometimes get jealous. Every time he gets out, he goes right back to his old self: smoking, drugging, and missing parole meetings until finally a warrant is issued. I would think I would emerge from a jail cell full of newly gained wisdom. I'd reenter the world a master plumber, HVAC tech, CPA, and maybe even psychologist. Heck might even have some wonderful startup ideas. But in the current grind of things, I feel I have no room for self improvement or learning.

gspencley2• 3 years ago

I'm already an introvert, but having kids, a wife and bills to pay sometimes just gets overwhelming.

It took me years to become self-aware enough to understand who and what I am.

I love my daughters to death, now grown up, but I wish I could have been older and wiser when we had them so I could have done a much better job raising them.

Living in a small house with 3 other people, two of them noise-making children, on top of working from home (I was self-employed for 15 years) was very difficult for all of us and nearly killed me (literally). Had I understood why noise bothered me so much, why I needed time and space to myself, and why my anger issues were likely autistic meltdowns I think we could have made things work so much better and found a way to give our daughters a much happier and less stressful childhood.

This is one of the great things about the Internet. I was able to discover what introversion is, what high-functioning autism/aspergers is (no, I've never been diagnosed but even my mother tells me that it would explain my entire childhood), that other people go through this too and how to have these types of conversations with the people closest to you.

I'm very lucky to have a wife as patient and understanding as I do. We were high-school sweethearts and she went through the learning and discovery process with me.

I can't help you with how to make the time for self improvement and learning, but do know that it's not just you.

yrral• 3 years ago

Any preliminary data about her sleep schedule? I was hoping the article would say something about that.

vincnetas• 3 years ago

Pitty that there are no scientific resuts presented in article only random personal details and no insights. i had hoped for more substantian information after 500 days.

valarauko5• 3 years ago

She's had no human contact for 500 days, so no samples or examinations. That process starts now.

blobbers• 3 years ago

I suspect they were actively monitoring blood samples etc.

tectec• 3 years ago

If it’s anything like the Mars 1000 trip by Reid Stowe then the science thing might be more for publicity than for actual usable science.

tough2• 3 years ago

She did take a 8 day break from the cave (which she spent on a tent above the cave without human contact but breaking the no-sunlight rule) because her wifi network which was in use for the security cameras/footage broke and the IT guys have to come and fix it around day 298.

This will probably make it not a record previously held by an Ucranian on 465 day mark but still very impressive

Also there will be a documentary coming out from her team

11235813213455• 3 years ago

In all seriousness, isn't https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natascha_Kampusch qualifying for the record?

valarauko5• 3 years ago

Which record? It looks like she had contact and interaction with her captor every single day.

qwertox3• 3 years ago

Considering the context, no.

capableweb• 3 years ago

Seems the "Captivity" sections goes into more depth about why she probably doesn't hold the record:

For the first six months of her captivity, Kampusch was not allowed to leave the chamber at any time, [...] Afterward, she spent increasing amounts of time upstairs in the rest of the house,
In later years, she was seen outside in the garden alone

Seems she wasn't underground for the entire duration.

setgree2• 3 years ago

I wish I had not clicked this link

mburee• 3 years ago

Wouldn't Fritzl's victims beat that by like 20 years?

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

Disturbingly, also Austrian...

timcobb• 3 years ago

Evidence recovery was complicated, as Přiklopil's only computer was a 1980s Commodore 64, which is incompatible with modern-day data-recovery programs.[37]

Paul-Craft7• 3 years ago

In all seriousness, do you really want to go assigning world records like that to kidnapping victims?

swah• 3 years ago

Did she have a power outlet there?

legohead• 3 years ago

Lots of mentions of studies by various groups, but the first one that came to mind to me was NASA or other space agencies. If we want to travel to Mars, and beyond, how will isolation affect us? Granted, you may have crewmates on a space flight, but it's still good knowledge to know the capabilities of a single individual.

elliekelly• 3 years ago

I almost think having crew mates in a small confined space for years on end would be worse than the isolation of being alone. Maybe the first mission to Mars should just be one astronaut and their dogs.

outside1234• 3 years ago

Just crazy mental fortitude. I wouldn't make it three days in there.

Asparagirl• 3 years ago

Some of the previous recordholders were at least 38 Ukrainian Jews, including three families (Stermer, Dodyk, and Wexler) and some very young children, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in the Ozerna caves ("Priest's Grotto") in Ternopil oblast, western Ukraine, for 344 days.

Most of the survivors moved to the US after the war. The story was only fairly recently recorded and turned into a documentary film, "No Place on Earth".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Place_on_Earth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priest%27s_Grotto

hammyhavoc3• 3 years ago

Wow, great recommendation on the doc. Will check that out.

karaterobot• 3 years ago

The cave was infested by flies at one point. That'd be my cue to leave — imagine just being swarmed by flies in the dark, with nowhere to go, nothing else to think about — but good on her I guess.

thatwasunusual2• 3 years ago

To be fair, the cave was infested by a human for 500 days.

gspencley2• 3 years ago

I haven't watched any of her videos but it might not have been quite that bad. She would have had a camp set up, if not multiple. It really depends how deep the cave is. If it's too deep for one person to carry all the supplies needed then multiple base camps are set up along the way to serve, among other things, as supply stations. The article didn't speak to this but I assume she was provided with food at the adjacent base camp because how else did she get food if she had no human contact and never left the cave?

So it's safe to assume that at her personal camp she had a tent and other provisions. Flies can get into the tent, of course, but it would keep most of them out. I think the worst part would be feeling "trapped" inside of the tent while waiting out the infestation.

tough2• 3 years ago

She had no tent on the cave.

She said she almost left when flies put larvae on her hair and she woke up basically surrounded to flys.

Honestly the lady is a professional sports woman, and she did seem a bit off when coming out and talking to the reporters, like nobody spends 2y solo and be like yeah im fine

pvaldes2• 3 years ago

Chironomids probably. They swarm and have short lives of days or hours, don't eat and are tiny and harmless, so probably more a welcomed change to the numbing routine than real nuissance.

sandworm1014• 3 years ago

I cannot believe this is a record. Throughout history there have been countless religiously-motivated persons who have lived isolated existences, many in caves. Surely some monk somewhere lived below ground for more than two years at a go.

mach1ne• 3 years ago

But there weren’t Guinness judges around for that.

thatwasunusual2• 3 years ago

If a record falls, and no one is around...

sandworm1014• 3 years ago

Nor the credit cards necessary to put deposits down prior to the record attempt.

"To enable us to continue to be a part of thousands of personal achievement journeys, we can only provide access to use services such as an official adjudicator through our fee-based Consultancy service."

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/faqs

rurban3• 3 years ago

Guinness judges are just local, independent experts. She had enough of them. But she had to leave the cave for a few days, not mentioned there.

starik36• 3 years ago

Jewish mystic Shimon bar Yochai and his son, supposedly spent 13 years hiding in a cave.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shimon-bar-Yochai

tssva2• 3 years ago

The article doesn't say they never left the cave during this time. It does mention them surviving by eating dates and the fruit of the carob tree which likely means they left their hiding place in the cave upon occasion to gather them.

johndhi• 3 years ago

Good call. Ajanta caves in India had isolated rooms where monks supposedly spent long long times. I believe Mahavira (Jain saint) was supposed to have isolated for 12 years at one point..

valarauko5• 3 years ago

The Ajanta caves were monasteries, but they still had contact with each other. The monks would also have responsibilities and chores to do around the site, plus interaction with the lay public who bought offerings, and presumably with visiting aristocrats and officials who paid for their upkeep.

crazygringo• 3 years ago

It probably isn't, in the sense of it happening previously.

But "longest record" is usually shorthand for "longest documented record", and indeed documented credibly.

NoboruWataya• 3 years ago

Isn't that literally the meaning of a "record"?

whitepaint• 3 years ago

How did she get food?

valarauko5• 3 years ago

She had a support team above ground monitoring her, and would send her supplies and remove waste.

ahmedfromtunis2• 3 years ago

This is offtopic.

To read the article I had to wait for the Play Store install an "instant app" that looks exactly like the website.

But when I tried to watch the video embedded, it told me that I needed to install the "full" app.

Why go through all of this when a good ol' website would've been more than enough?

rascul• 3 years ago

I tried in both Firefox and Chrome on my Android phone. I didn't get prompted to install an app, Play Store didn't come up, I could read the article and play the videos fine in the browser.

I wonder if maybe I disabled something that caused the behavior you saw.

ahmedfromtunis2• 3 years ago

I'm using Chrome. And it didn't prompt me for anything.

I clicked on the link, the page was open in Chrome for a split second before a new screen labelled Play Store took over.

Of course I could've just cancelled it during the 10 seconds or so it took install this "instant app" but I was curious about this new thing. I genuinely expected and wanted to test what I assumed would be an improved experience.

I was wrong.

cubefox3• 3 years ago

Same for me, Android on a tablet.

loeg2• 3 years ago

Only 60 books in a year and a half? Sheesh.

yazzku• 3 years ago

Not to undermine this, but:

with no contact with the outside world
Flamini was monitored by a group of psychologists, researchers, speleologists — specialists in the study of caves — and physical trainers who watched her every move and monitored her physical and mental well-being.

The knowledge that somebody is out there watching you changes the whole thing completely. What exactly was this study supposed to find?

albert_e• 3 years ago

Off topic

On mobile (android, chrome) the linked news site forces "full screen" and somehow prevents the native browser address bar and options menu and native share icon etc from appearing. Even scrolling up or down doesn't show browser controls like it does on other sites.

Surprised this behaviour is possible and allowed by a website (full screen take over)

aembleton• 3 years ago

Works mostly fine on Firefox with ubo. Mostly fine because there is still a cookie pop-up

pshushereba• 3 years ago

Your move, Aaron Rodgers.

TriNetra• 3 years ago

A sublime experience extracted from [0] by a monk, living for 100 days in complete solitude doing sadhana (meditative practice) in a makeshift hut on icy Himalayan mountain/forest (2011), attaining realization during this final phase of his sadhana:

I had to learn how to absorb the powerful energies flowing through me. Thus, I decided to enter strict solitude for a hundred days. I needed this time to absorb the vision.
I informed Pradeep about my plan and his meticulous management made it possible. I changed my routine and began meditating from 7 p.m. until 4 a.m. If, once or twice a month, the villagers passed this way for hay, Pradeep would tell them to keep absolutely quiet. They maintained both distance and silence. During this period, I neither met nor saw anyone. Pradeep would wake up at 1 a.m., take a bath, say his prayers and prepare my meal before 4 a.m. He would come to the little temple near my hut, ring a bell and hide behind the temple wall so that we did not see each other. I would then step out and go to his hut for my meal. Eating would take me nearly an hour because it was nothing short of a ritual for me. It was an opportunity to express my gratitude to Mother Nature, to the farmers who produced the grain and to Pradeep who cooked it. The digestive fire in the stomach is called vaishvanara. I would offer every bite to this fire, akin to the fire offering in a yajna. I still do, for that matter.
While I was gone, Pradeep would wait for me quietly or refill the water bucket in my hut. He’d also fix the tarpaulin on the roof in case a storm had blown it about at night. If I needed to communicate something, I wrote a note and left it in his hut.
Towards the end of March, I felt a shooting pain near my kidney. I was startled because I had already perfected my posture and wasn’t expecting any more pains. I’d already been through excruciating knee pains, severe backaches, a tired body and aching arms and shoulders. What was this new pain? The middle plank of my bed had completely sunk, making it an uneven and unsuitable surface to sit on; perhaps my posture was the cause of the pain. I placed my pillow on the plank but this didn’t help. I took an hour out of my sleep time and did some yoga asanas to stretch my body; this alleviated the pain just a little. It was becoming impossible for me to sit still for hours at a time, which is what I needed to do. I wasn’t going to give up on my 150-day meditation though; I had to get rid of this pain. Reflecting on the pain, it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen the sun for nearly two-and- a-half months. I took my morning meals when it was still dark. I used to step out occasionally during the day, but I hadn’t been out at all in the sunlight for nearly ten weeks now. I had been living in an extremely cold hut and didn’t use a fire to warm myself. The next day, instead of yoga, I spread a mat and sat outside with my back towards the sun. That night the pain subsided to a large extent. I repeated the process for the next few days and the pain disappeared. I would never know what really caused it, but sitting in the sun relieved it.
Enjoying the sweetness of solitude, diving deep into the ocean of a still mind, I passed my days in deep meditation and crystal-clear awareness. I was acutely aware of everything around me: the sounds of hornets and wasps, a spider crawling on the wall, every drop of rain that fell. Any thought that emerged in my mind would not go unnoticed. This was truly an extraordinary level of awareness. My intuitive faculties entered a new dimension. No matter what question I thought of, an inner voice gave me the answer. One day, during meditation, the same inner voice instructed me to visit Kamakhya temple. I would get sarvoch tantric diksha, the highest tantric initiation there, it said. I was reminded of Bhairavi Ma who had foretold this in Badrinath. I decided to visit Kamakhya after the completion of my sadhana. But, right now, I simply lived in the present moment. I was the a boat sailing in an ocean of bliss; actually, I was the ocean of bliss itself.
The silence within me was beyond description. Just as you churn milk and it turns into butter, and that butter can never become milk again, my mind had reached an irreversible state of peace and joy. I felt that to remain unaffected, no matter what the circumstances, to be unmoved by someone’s birth, death, acceptance, rejection, praise or criticism—this sense of dispassion and detachment was arising from within me, without any effort. I opened my notepad and scribbled in it: ‘Self-realization is not an instantaneous act. We may have an aha moment but it is mindfulness that allows us to navigate the world with the utmost awareness of our verbal, mental and physical actions. It is one thing to grasp that we are not just the body, but it is another thing altogether not to react when someone hurts us. We may recognize that anger destroys our peace of mind, but to remain calm, no matter how strong the provocation—that is real realization. Why did it take the Buddha six years to achieve liberation? If it was an instantaneous thing, he could have had it in the first month. It took Mahavira ten years and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa twelve years. The experiences, lessons, insights add up, finally bringing one to the point of realization. Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius but it takes a little while to get to that temperature. The flame that heats the water already holds the potential to burn as powerfully as the sun, but it is the water that needs to come to a boil. The soul or consciousness is ever pure; it is the conscious mind that needs to reach boiling point, while the subconscious has to imbibe the insights and the learning.

0: https://www.amazon.com/If-Truth-Be-Told-A-Monks-Memoir-Om-Sw...

edpichler• 3 years ago

It was voluntarily. Incredible, of course, but the title is a bit misleading.

teleforce• 3 years ago

The myth that any ancient human or mammal did live permanently inside caves need to be stopped because it's just not feasible.

People throughout history just use caves as temporary shelter and dwellings enroute to a permanent destination.

EDIT: Bat is an exception to this but bat is the only mammal that fly

louison113• 3 years ago

I am REALLY curious about any shift in her view of reality, specifically any potential emergence of spiritual views, or the likes. Many ancient traditions have forms of "vision questing" involving usually a few days fasting in solitude. And those tend to provide the "questers" with profound insights (without any substance, only the interruption of day-to-day patterns). Similar with 10-day meditation retreats. Sadly the article doesn't touch on this - but that'd be my first interest knowing she's spent 500 days down there.

new_here• 3 years ago

Where do I sign up?

lofaszvanitt• 3 years ago

Was there a Burger King nearby, and how many times did she leave unnoticed?

pvaldes2• 3 years ago

We have a notable and beautiful spring this year. Even women sprout from the soil.

mxmilkiib2• 3 years ago

What are with these three asterisk comments?

mwattsun2• 3 years ago

Most of my submarine buddies described living on a submarine underwater for months at a time as a nightmare or, at best, a terrible inconvenience, but my experience was exactly like this Spanish cave dweller's. Of course, it's helps that I'm a reader like them.

cubefox3• 3 years ago

You are actually a submariner? That sounds scary.

mwattsun2• 3 years ago

I was in the U.S. Navy in the 80's. I never felt afraid, but I'm an engineer and trusted the engineering

Kiro• 3 years ago

What's going on with this website? When I click the link I end up in an app but I have no such app installed on my phone (Android). I've never seen this before. It's not AMP and there's no URL bar. It also transitions in a way that normally only happens when you go from the browser to an app.

cubefox3• 3 years ago

It's a so-called instant app. Basically a website in Form of an app.

relacxt• 3 years ago

If I came out and heard the news that she missed out on I think I would have just gone back to the cave

tgtweak• 3 years ago

with no contact with the outside world
in an experiment closely monitored by scientists

well, which is it... can you not contact them if they're monitoring you on IP cameras constantly?

thelittleone• 3 years ago

I think the Kogi got this beat or yogic practice of Gupta Sadhana.

"The Kogi people are an indigenous tribe living in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains in northern Colombia. The Kogi have a strong spiritual connection with their environment and practice a number of rituals and ceremonies.

One such ceremony is the initiation of young boys into adulthood, which involves a period of seclusion in a cave. The initiation process varies in length, but it can last anywhere from several months to around nine years, depending on the specific role the boy is being prepared for in the community. During this time, the boys receive spiritual teachings and learn about the history, traditions, and values of the Kogi people. The initiation process is an important aspect of the Kogi culture, as it helps maintain the tribe's connection to their ancestral beliefs and practices."

rippercushions• 3 years ago

During this time, the boys receive spiritual teachings and learn about the history, traditions, and values of the Kogi people.

Sounds like they live in a cave, but are not alone?

jkubicek• 3 years ago

Beatriz Flamini... said by her support team to have broken a world record for the longest time spent in a cave in an experiment closely monitored by scientists seeking to learn more about the capacities of the human mind and circadian rhythms.

I wonder what the previous record for longest time spent in a cave in an experiment closely monitored by scientists seeking to learn more about the capacities of the human mind and circadian rhythms was?

ape4• 3 years ago

What about the prehistoric CAVE men?! They might have spent more time in a cave.

mkl• 3 years ago

Not at all. Few prehistoric people lived in caves, and those that did, most likely temporarily, left frequently to get food and other supplies. Caves preserve things for later people (now archaeologists and palaeontologists) to find, so long ago ignorant people jumped to conclusions. Same with "cave bears", "cave lions", etc.

titzer2• 3 years ago

Not to take away from her accomplishment, but the psychological context of being watched 24/7 is different than being alone. Very different.

peterbonney• 3 years ago

Reminds me of this incredible New Yorker article about illegal mining in abandoned South African gold mines: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/27/the-dystopian-...

Spanish climber emerges after 500 days in cave

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