Theme: This is the worst trip I’ve ever been on.

Episode Connections
Authors, stories. “The Cold Equations.”
Films. The Towering Inferno. The Poseidon Adventure. Sharknado. The Island at the Top of the World. The Black Hole. Alien. Pitch Black. Aliens. Castaway. Passengers. The Martian. Ad Astra.
TV episodes, series. Battlestar Galactica. Survivorman.
Music. The Beach Boys, “The Sloop John B.”
Ideas. The psychological impact of prolonged contact in close quarters. Boredom breeds crippling malaise. People need a sense of purpose. Anomie: “the profound sense of isolation, alienation, and lack of purpose that individuals experience when society's rules and values no longer clearly apply.” Corporate attitudes toward investment and resources mean that sometimes there is no real incentive to solve a recurring problem. Humans tend to willingly forget trauma. Colonial “shuttles” versus generational star ships. Living in realtime versus traveling in cryogenic suspension. Hikikomori: “are reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement.” Contemporary society has created pathways through which we can and do become socially isolated. We experiment with isolation at times. Humans require socialization until population density reaches a certain point, when the impact of socialization flips to the negative.

Whoa - Hmmm - WTF. Bill says definitely not a WTF story. Big hmmm, little whoa. Dan feel a stronger sense of Whoa than Bill.

Previous episode: Arkady Strugotsky, “Wanderers and Travelers”
Next episode: Frederic Pohl, “The Hated”

Music Credit: "Ouroboros" Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Link: Creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/