Real-Life Weirdness

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Allergies I assume, because I thought that only Asian giant hornets can kill people that aren't allergic or stung literally thousands of times.

Allergies. There is a victim every few years. But since we spent a few millennia geting rid of anything deadlier and larger, or domesticating it, wasp win by default. Viper are very rare and rarely kill fast enough that you cannot get treatment. Wild boar are more common but usually run away instead of attacking. Wasp are everywhere, and if someone allergic get stung for the first time ever in or around the throat...

Speaking of wild animals, it seem the little girl caught by a sea lion was actually bitten, and is now enjoying a cocktail of antibiotics just in case.

[William]

Man survives 30 years in the woods, thieving and hiding. He so rarely saw or spoke to anyone that his verbal skills had atrophied when he was caught.

Asked upon his arrest for deep mystic wisdom about the human condition, ignore the actual reply he gives ("Get enough sleep.") and look at what he said earlier: that without anyone else around, his identity became tenuous. When there's no one else for you to say you're not, it's hard to say who you are, because what would the claim mean? There's not so much a "you" as there is one among many objects in the world.

Proof of concept, at least, for a character in a game. Had he been managing it legally -- say, in a medieval forest where he would have the right to forage and hunt -- he might have passed the rest of his life out there and died as alone as he wished. Or maybe with no identity to lose, he might have died and not noticed.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by William

Man survives 30 years in the woods, thieving and hiding. He so rarely saw or spoke to anyone that his verbal skills had atrophied when he was caught.

Asked upon his arrest for deep mystic wisdom about the human condition, ignore the actual reply he gives ("Get enough sleep.") and look at what he said earlier: that without anyone else around, his identity became tenuous. When there's no one else for you to say you're not, it's hard to say who you are, because what would the claim mean? There's not so much a "you" as there is one among many objects in the world.

Proof of concept, at least, for a character in a game. Had he been managing it legally -- say, in a medieval forest where he would have the right to forage and hunt -- he might have passed the rest of his life out there and died as alone as he wished. Or maybe with no identity to lose, he might have died and not noticed.

Be aware, though, that most people do not seek out this kind of solitude. He may have had issues with identity even before he took off for the woods. Very interesting.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Anders

Be aware, though, that most people do not seek out this kind of solitude. He may have had issues with identity even before he took off for the woods. Very interesting.

If you're off in one way, you're probably off in another. Like how if you have one allergy, you're very likely to have others.
Long periods of solitude is literally torture for healthy humans, so someone wanting, or believing they need it, is off in more ways than one.

[exalted]

Originally Posted by William

Proof of concept, at least, for a character in a game. Had he been managing it legally -- say, in a medieval forest where he would have the right to forage and hunt.

In most medieval forests however he would have been hunted as a poacher, vagrant or madman and not unlikely all three. Those people usually had very strict rules for who could do what to forests that where remotely close to any habitation.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by exalted

In most medieval forests however he would have been hunted as a poacher, vagrant or madman and not unlikely all three. Those people usually had very strict rules for who could do what to forests that where remotely close to any habitation.

But then he could pretty much avoid people just by being a "holy hermit'.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

If you're off in one way, you're probably off in another. Like how if you have one allergy, you're very likely to have others.
Long periods of solitude is literally torture for healthy humans, so someone wanting, or believing they need it, is off in more ways than one.

It's a spectrum, and people fall along it between 'loner' and 'hive' But yeah, I'm pretty sure Heinlein had it right when he had a character observe that humans need both company and solitude, and you can drive someone mad by depriving them of either for long enough.

[Flyndaran]

Even the most antisocial healthy person that ever lived still needs some human interaction for sanity. Over periods of weeks to a month or two, of course. While many people suffer severely if they go for just a single day or two sans social interaction.

[David Johnston2]

A skin care clinic in Vietnam was recently spotted using the Umbrella Corp logo as theirs. Now we know where the zombie apocalypse starts...

[Anders]

Diver attacked by octopus.

And so it begins...