spike66@ibm.net (Spike Jones) writes:
>In the spirit of survivor, I propose a new sport, the optimal
>strategy of which is unclear. The game is to see who can
>walk (or run) the greatest distance, assuming that the competitor
>must carry *all* necessary supplies, food, water, whatever else
>might be needed.
>
>To make the competition end in a reasonable time, we would
>make the competition in Death Valley in the early fall, so its not
>so very hot, but is very dry. This means most of the payload
>would be water. Again to speed the competition, the walk
>ends if the competitor stops for more than 5 minutes. All the
>competitors get a GPS receiver connected to a phone. If
>that receiver gets the same number for 4.5 minutes, a warning
>tone sounds, and if it hasnt changed 30 seconds later, the
>pickup crew is called. This of course would preclude sleeping,
>so the contest is unlikely to last more than about 30-40 hrs,
>the winners having traveled perhaps 150 km.
This is virtually indistinguishable from an existing sport. There is a
race where people run from Badwater (in Death Valley) to Whitney Portal
(which appears to be nearly 150 km by road). I know someone who plans to
run this race next July (he hopes to make it in 40 hours, which precludes
sleeping), and then climb Mt. Whitney. It's sufficiently similar to races
he has run in the past that I won't be surprised if he finishes as he expects.
It isn't clear that your 5 minute rule would have much effect on his strategy.
Rules about contestants carrying their own water presumably affect the
maximum distance people can manage, but I wouldn't expect them to have
major effects on the character of the race.
For a truly new (and not yet feasible) class of sports, I suggest ones
where contestants can't learn from direct experience, but instead need
to learn by observing copies of themselves. My inspiration(?) for this
class of sports comes from Monty Python's "Being Eaten by a Crocodile"
competition (which should provide a hint about how serious it is), but
I haven't been able to work out details that would make it a good test
of skill.
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Peter McCluskey | The US Idea Futures Exchange: speculate on http://www.rahul.net/pcm | political,financial issues at http://www.usifex.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:36:42 MDT