From: Mitchell, Jerry (3337) (Jerry.Mitchell@esavio.com)
Date: Thu Sep 20 2001 - 15:38:25 MDT
> Mark Walker wrote:
> >
> > I was looking again at some pictures of those poor
> individuals trapped on
> > the floors above the burning plane wrecks. The images of
> some of them
> > jumping from the inferno is something I think I will never
> forget--even if I
> > should become immortal. It occurred to me how terrible but
> for the lack of
> > something as simple as a rope many of these people died.
> Obviously going
> > down a hundred story building on a rope is dangerous, but
> we know at least
> > in this case the alternative was not worse. Those of you
> who live or work in
> > hi-rise buildings may want to think about investing in some
> low tech. Mark.
>
> Sorry, I can't see a rope being much better than jumping. Do
> they make
> fold-up pocket parachutes/paragliders?
>
> -- -- -- -- --
> Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
> Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
I used to jump all the time and can see some problems with chutes.
Parachutes are very expensive first of all (2500 to over 5K dollars each),
also it takes a good deal of training to learn to use one correctly. Also,
in the city with a lot of big buildings, I dont even want to think about the
wind shear around those buildings.
Rope is MUCH safer, even if they were just tied on and lowered down by
others. Maybe some type of winch should be on each floor that could be used.
Also, with the adrenal levels where they was when the buildings were on
fire, I can assure you, those people could have climbed a 100 story rope
before they would have wanted to jump. You may have had a problem with the
seriously overwieght people holding their own weight up, but theres a limit
to the extent that anyone can go to try to make something safe. Designing an
escape route for someone that weighed 800lbs may not be cost effective. All
I can say is that the seriously heavy people should take that into
consideration when choosing their lifestyle.
Jerry
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