Euthanasia Coaster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_Coaster

by ca98am79 • 12 years ago

92 106 12 years ago

en.wikipedia.org

tiku• 12 years ago

I'm getting flashbacks to Rollercoaster Tycoon..

izzydata2• 12 years ago

Yea, I had coasters way worse than this, but customers only ever complained that it was awful. You weren't able to kill them with excessive G-forces.

Agathos• 12 years ago

I thought there was a way to fatally catapult them into a neighboring park and then, because they died there, the game engine would penalize that park for killing its guests. But I might be thinking of a different amusement park simulator.

fixermark5• 12 years ago

I feel like this wouldn't work.

I'm not a doctor, but I was under the impression that the brain could survive lack of blood flow for several minutes. How long is this ride supposed to last?

wellboy• 12 years ago

I think the body can survive the lack of oxygen for several minutes, because there is always oxygen left in the body that the brain can use.

However, if the brain cells consume any oxygen at all, because there is nothing there, they can die pretty quickly such as within 30 seconds.

unwind• 12 years ago

The ride time is 3:20 according to the linked-to page.

I thought this was horrible. I guess it's "art", but still. Yuck.

k-mcgrady4• 12 years ago

> "I thought this was horrible."

What about it did you find horrible? If you wanted to end your life it seems like a relatively pain free way to do so. Artistically it's also pretty interesting imo.

haberman• 12 years ago

I think two minutes of that 3:20 are just getting to the top. The 10g only lasts 60 seconds.

fauria• 12 years ago

This is how it would look like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEklVDlqwbQ

rytis• 12 years ago

I guess if they inverted it, so that the passengers get exposed to negative g force it would be "safer". It seems that -3g is enough to kill, so 7 loops of -10g would be sure death.

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-force#Vertical_axis_g-force

TylerE2• 12 years ago

Negative G is much more uncomfortable than positive G.

sdfjkl2• 12 years ago

Much more difficult to secure against accidental ejection though.

Udo3• 12 years ago

I do have some medical training, and I'm inclined to agree with your suspicion that it doesn't actually work.

The "critical" portion only lasts a few seconds, up to a minute. Depending on the direction of the force, 10g for a minute would be close to the edge for untrained people but not expected to have long-lasting harmful effects in most cases.

There are several ways in which high g forces cause harm to humans. The article mentions blood flow, specifically applying the amount of acceleration necessary to stop oxygenated blood from reaching the brain. Completely stopping the flow of blood for 60 seconds will result in a loss of consciousness, but the designers of the coaster seem to be under the impression that achieving this even for a moment kills people. They're wrong. If normal blood flow is restored after 60 seconds of anoxia, no adverse effects are to be expected at all, not even in the short term. Of course statistically there will be cases where the heart enters one of several possible failure modes under these conditions (again mostly in humans with pre-existing health problems) and while I expect it to be rare among the healthy population, those people would indeed need immediate medical attention - but they too can be expected to make a full recovery if they receive it.

High g forces can also damage blood vessels due to simple overpressure, causing them to rupture. This will happen with body parts located in the direction of the force applied. In this design, this will be the lower extremities, where this damage - if it occurs - will be minimal. But if you suspended people "upside down", that would be another story. Overpressure in the blood vessels of the brain is a dangerous thing. Again, I'm not sure 10g for 60 seconds is enough, but I'd intuitively say if there was any way of inducing fatalities with this coaster that would be the way to go. Especially people with existing defects and weaknesses of the blood vessels in their brains would be most at risk, people with aneurisms for example.

Lastly, high g forces can cause tissue trauma due to compression or internal impact damage. 10g for 60 seconds would not be enough to cause that in healthy organs. But if the coaster's design was changed to 20 or 30 g, delivered over an extended period, injuries and fatalities due to organ trauma (including the brain) will occur.

So on final consideration: this roller coaster will cause people to pass out for up to a minute. However, this effect is completely reversible. In healthy people, no lasting damage is expected.

brightsize2• 12 years ago

That's great information. I assume though that healthy people wouldn't be euthanizing themselves just for laughs. They'd normally be sick to begin with.

This ride would be great for fraternity hazing. The frat would get some yuks as the pledges went round and round, and the school would have plausible deniability - "the University understood that they were simply enjoying a day at the amusement park".

ds9• 12 years ago

This could never succeed here in the US - (a) general opposition to euthanasia and (b) the amusement park industry would lobby against it because it would scare people away from the regular, milder roller coasters.

It seems mostly academic, as there are much less costly, and not-unpleasant methods - overdose of opiates for example.

peteretep• 12 years ago

    > This could never succeed here in the US

Dang, ya think?

gadders• 12 years ago

I bet repeat business would be appalling.

izzydata2• 12 years ago

Uh... I can't tell if you are being serious or not. I'll assume you are joking.

davidw3• 12 years ago

Oregon was one of the first places in the world to legalize euthanasia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_in_the_United_States...

sinkasapa• 12 years ago

So they'll probably be one of the first to build this coaster. It's inevitable. :-)

urschrei• 12 years ago

Oh, you don't need it; your healthcare system is far more effective.

nkozyra• 12 years ago

I rode this, wasn't scary at all!

esquivalience• 12 years ago

I'm interested that it's designed by an art student. I'm not sure whether it's intended as art, but if so I suppose it lies in the dichotomy - horror of death vs the very functional combination of entertainment and euthanasia.

In that case it would certainly the most interesting piece of 'artistic research' I've seen.

And the "ultimate" designation is a nice mockery of brand hype!

earljwagner• 12 years ago

Trey Brackish: "I'm standing here at Thrill World where this roller coaster continues taking the lives of innocent people. Earlier today we spoke with John Oakfellow of the Red Cross."

John Oakfellow: "We're doing what we can, but the casualties continue to mount."

Mr. Show "The Devastator" http://youtu.be/p5Oi57fqdU0

zerohm• 12 years ago

+1 for sending me down a Mr. Show youtube hole.

maaarghk• 12 years ago

Considering this in a purely pragmatic sense, my main concern is that if you were one of the "particularly robust" "customers" yourself, you might end up covered in someone else's vomit in your last moments.

ygra• 12 years ago

I guess at 10 g, when the body isn't able to pump blood to the brain anymore, your stomach would have difficulties expelling its contents as well. At least if I understood the operating principle correctly.

dkhenry• 12 years ago

After seeing a close friend die slowly over three weeks from stage 4 ovarian cancer. I think this would be worlds better then the slow euthanasia by morphine drip that we currently use.

jobu• 12 years ago

Totally agree. There are so many ways that a person can die a prolonged, horrible death that is medically sanctioned and supposedly more ethical than euthanasia.

After watching my father wither away with dementia I've decided to take up skydiving after I retire (and pack my own parachute). If my mental state becomes too poor to properly pack the chute I think hitting the ground at 200 mph would be a decent way to go.

fixermark5• 12 years ago

This is an open secret in the healthcare profession; people really don't like to talk about it, but doctors definitely will allow the administration of a lethal dose of morphine to a suffering patient because there is quite literally no better alternative.

There's even a safety interlock on the infusion machine that the doctor has to provide the override codes for to go beyond the safe dose.

rimantas• 12 years ago

Damn, something related to my country at the top of HN and it's about suicide more or less. Sad fact: Lithuania is among the top countries regarding suicides :(

gpcz• 12 years ago

I know it's taboo to bring up the Holocaust in Internet discussions, but this coaster and the verbiage that the Wikipedia article uses ("unloading of corpses" in particular) creeps me out at a level similar to the industrial processes the Nazis invented to perform mass murder. The coaster would probably be horrifying to watch, too -- people would scream for the first drop and the first few inversions, and then you would hear an eerie silence.

userbinator• 12 years ago

Especially this part: Subsequent inversions would serve as insurance against unintentional survival of particularly robust passengers.

cbsmith• 12 years ago

I'm not sure why that triggered anything for you. Any humane execution process needs to have safeguards in place to ensure no one survives.

logfromblammo2• 12 years ago

The thing I found to be most offensive is that it does 24 passengers at a time. That's really what makes it creepy. It's like they're not even trying to make your death special. If I'm going to die on the most lethal roller coaster ever designed, I don't want the last thing I see to be the backs of 22 screaming heads. And do you really need to kill 360 people an hour? Is demand for suicide really that high? I don't think so. Pull out 23 of those seats and put in a few video cameras. And play me Ride of the Valkyries or something on the way down so I can go out feeling like a badass.

And don't "unload" me. You build a massive corpse ejector into that train that launches my body through the air across the people waiting in line onto a giant trampoline over a body funnel. I'll roll right into the plastic souvenir coffin, which my family can purchase at the photo booth along with the final video for $49.99, with free drink refills included for the duration of their stay at the park.

etherael2• 12 years ago

You in the front seat, headphones with ride of the valkyries, and 23 other people who haven't spent as much time thinking about it as you (probably the vast majority of people who are contemplating suicide) and you get your wish without compromising the efficiency of the machine.

shawkinaw• 12 years ago

Wow where do I start with this? I LOLed at least 3 times reading this, but the idea that this is at a theme park with other rides is probably the best part.

peterwwillis• 12 years ago

This needs to become a horror film now.

aaronem5• 12 years ago

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that something similar had turned up in one of the several even cheesier Final Destination sequels.

Udo3• 12 years ago

I come from Germany, the country that not only raised the bar when it comes to the industrialized killing of its population, it pretty much redefined the scope of evil achievable with cult-like dictatorships empowered by modern technology.

Euthanasia as used in the article is a form of newspeak introduced by the Nazis, a cynical redefinition that constitutes a corruption of the word's original meaning.

As such, the word choice used here makes me just as uncomfortable as the concept itself. Originally, euthanasia (greek for "good death") is a means of ending a life for which the only perspective left is suffering. In this sense, the word is still being used (appropriately) in conjunction with terminal illness where it does have a place as part of the right to self-determination exercised by patients who make the conscious and informed decision to end their lives in order to avoid this suffering.

I really wish people would stop taking hints from the Nazis when it comes to vocabulary, even if it's on purpose. "Death Coster" or "Ride of Doom" would be perfectly sufficient.

easymovet• 12 years ago

blackout for sure, but 60 seconds of oxygen starvation shouldn't kill you right? 10g's might snap you neck though.

iLoch• 12 years ago

I would think that the severity of hypoxia depends on where in the body it happens. As far as I know (not much, admittedly) exhaling then counting to 60 is different than not allowing any oxygen into the brain. If you look at the Wikipedia page on Hypoxia you'll see a picture of a person with Hypoxia in their hand. Can't imagine your brain would do very well if the same thing occurred there.

aaronem5• 12 years ago

Exhale and count to 60, and your brain keeps running off the oxygen still in your bloodstream. Evacuate your brain of blood, and it can't do that; as deaths go, this one would probably be faster than a neck tourniquet, but slower than the .50 BMG to the head I mentioned elsewhere in this thread. (How can St. Peter tell who died that way? They're the ones who ask him "What the hell was that?")

jackschultz• 12 years ago

What's with that last sentence of the intro? This is an article about a roller coaster that kills people, not an argument for or against euthanasia. I come to this page wanting to read about a death coaster and then I'm thrust into a debate on whether it is moral to euthanize people.

Also, the source isn't really that solid. It's one sentence in a post on Metro which, since it looks like it's based in the UK, I don't really know much about.

If you want to include criticism for something make it a separate section or something, not a sentence in the introduction.

It looks like this was the revision where that sentence was added in:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Euthanasia_Coaster...

SandB0x• 12 years ago

Metro is a free commuter newspaper. Mostly adverts. It's not exactly the New York Times.

DanBC2• 12 years ago

Metro is a low quality free tabloid given away. It's found on buses and trains.

bshimmin• 12 years ago

Published by the same people as the Daily Mail, no less.

GotAnyMegadeth• 12 years ago

This is completely anecdotal and not exaggerated. I don't read the Metro much. But, I have literally never read an article/headline in the Metro that I have believed.

cmiller1• 12 years ago

I want to get off Mr. Bones Wild Ride.

facesonflags2• 12 years ago

"Not with a bang but a whimper."

http://aduni.org/~heather/occs/honors/Poem.htm

djanogo• 12 years ago

Seems like lot energy just to euthanize.

marknutter• 12 years ago

Somebody needs to make an Oculus Rift demo of the Euthanasia Coaster.

GrinningFool• 12 years ago

nilkn2• 12 years ago

Realistically, I think it would be much better to just use one of those centrifuge machines. I imagine that actually riding this roller coaster, before you faint, would be pretty painful. In a centrifuge you could probably strap in the passenger a lot better and provide much more cushioned seating and neck support so there's no pain involved.

njharman• 12 years ago

That does not sound fun. 2 min to contemplate you've made wrong choice but with no way out. Then terror and passing out.

There's definitely more enjoyable ways to end your misery.

TausAmmer2• 12 years ago

Add eject button.

"I want to die, I will jump off the ledge!" - "Please go ahead" - "On other thought...."

aaronem5• 12 years ago

For maximum fun potential, add an eject option but no parachute or other PPE of any sort.

mjamil• 12 years ago

Any conversation about individuals having the right to control their lives (including the means to end them) seems to me to be a good thing. Similarly, on a larger scale, I also find talking about the (often shady) efforts by various governments to control population to be a welcome thing. Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House" touches on both topics; it's worth a read.

facesonflags2• 12 years ago

  The artist's focus seems to be more on gravity than killing:

http://www.julijonasurbonas.lt/t/gravitational-aesthetics/

ssprang• 12 years ago

Reminds me of "The Centrifuge Brain Project" http://vimeo.com/58293017

lotsofmangos• 12 years ago

It is less stupid and tasteless than the experiments being performed on humans in Oklahoma at the moment.

Euthanasia Coaster

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