“Sam, did you hear about those French people living in a cave for 40 days?” *
“No, Gwendolyn, I didn’t. Who volunteers for such stuff? And why 40 days, is it some biblical thing, like wandering with Moses for 40 years or taking your canteen to walk with Jesus for 40 days? You know, that number 40 has biblical significance, don’t you? It represents a period of trial. Think the 40 days of Lent for a modern equivalent. Or, now, I’ll think of 15 cave people who drop the last letters of words and names. Did they build les maisons in the caves or sleep on the cave floor in a pile of bat droppings? And what’s the deal with not pronouncing that final ‘s’ in maisons?”
“Well, you don’t say ‘I-k-now,’ so what’s the deal with not pronouncing the ‘k’ or the ‘w’ in the word know when, as the French would say without pronouncing the ‘s,’ ‘tu parles’ or without saying the ‘z,’ ‘vous parlez’? How did we get on French pronunciation? I was asking if you knew about the experiment that involved 15 people living in a dark cave.”
“Okay, Gwen, so 15 Frenchmen went into a cave to live. Big deal. What was the point? Native Americans, heck, people all over the world lived in caves before we learned to build les maisons we live in today.”
“I was reading the article, Sam, because the cost of the experiment run by the Human Adaption Institute was $1.5 million. One and a half million bucks! They called the experiment 'Deep Time.' What’s wrong with people. Over a million bucks to stick people in a cave that cavemen, not just the Homo sapiens sapiens ones, but the Neanderthal ones, also, did for free. I remember going on one of the Mammoth Cave tours during which the park ranger explained how a Dr. Croghan put tuberculosis patients in the cave because the air in there was supposed to cure them.” **
“How did that work out?”
“Not well, as you can imagine. There’s an interesting quotation from one of the people who used to serve the en-caved people. Alfred, a guy who served meals to them, said, ‘I used to stand on that rock and flow the horn to call them to dinner. There were 15 of them and they looked more like a company of skeletons than anything else.’ That was back in the winter of 1842. After five of his experimental cave dwellers died, Dr. Croghan ended the experiment. You can still see two of the stone maisons in the cave. This is 2021. What the heck were the people at the Human Adaption Institute thinking? Or, should I ask, ‘What the heck were the people of the institute ingesting?’”
“What did they eat, by the way?”
“Get this. Get this. With their food the French cave-dwellers also swallowed little capsules with thermometers that transmitted data to a portable computer. That is, the thermometers transmitted until they pooped them out. A million and a half bucks! A MILLION AND A HALF! How many poor people actually living in caves today could have had an apartment with electricity and running water for that amount? Did you know that the L.A. Times once ran a story that there were 30 million Chinese currently living in caves? Talk about a breeding ground for tuberculosis! And it’s not just the Chinese. There are not 15, but fifteen hundred people living in caves in Coober Pedy, Australia. Twenty-first century, and people are still living in caves. And not only those who have no alternative housing, but 15 volunteer Frenchmen!”
“I see this has you pretty worked up, Gwen. Certainly, there must have been some science behind these experimental cave-dwellers.”
“Yeah. Big science, Sam. The ‘scientists’ wanted to monitor sleep patterns, social interactions, and behavioral reactions. Couldn’t just go ask 30 million Chinese cave-dwellers or 1,500 cave-dwellers in Coober Pedy. Had to spend a million and a half bucks on something that actual cave-dwellers do free—well, that is, except for swallowing a tiny thermometer. And the 30 million in China and 1,500 in Coober Pedy just don’t live in caves for 40 biblical days of trial; they live there year ‘round, every year, every decade. And surprise, surprise. What happened? As you could guess, the French people in the experiment lost track of how long they were in the cave. Geez. Even Dr. Croghan’s tuberculosis patients had watches, and that was way back in the mid nineteenth century. And then, when the French cave-dwellers emerged, they supposedly looked ‘visibly tired.’ Surprised? Me neither. But, million-and-a-half-buck experimenters included a ‘chronobiologist,’ I guess some guy who works with biological clocks to draw some conclusion. I actually don’t care. Adaptation Institute, Adaption, whatever. What about the people thrown into the Black Hole of Calcutta? What about people thrown into a dark trailer to be smuggled across the U. S. border with Mexico? What about those times when I was so tired, I fell into a deep sleep and awoke not knowing for a moment how long I slept or even where I was?”
“Sounds as though Dr. Croghan’s turberculosis experiment missed the mark on all he could have studied.”
“No. He and the others in Mammoth Cave knew that they were in sync. What’s that they say about college girls living as roommates? Of course, people living together sync their lives, whether they live in darkness or in light. By the way, did I mention that they laid out the dead tuberculosis patients on a rock now known as Corpse Rock? So, anyway, Dr. Croghan didn’t run a high-tech experiment just as the Chinese cave-dwellers aren’t running a high-tech experiment with poopable thermometers. What Croghan and the others noted about living in a dark, damp cave was what any of us would have noted about human interactions without spending a million and a half dollars. In fact, aren’t we always observing sleep habits, synced lives, and behavioral adaptations? I guess all the twenty-first century cave-dwellers around the world don’t know they are running an experiment in human adaptation, or adaption, or whatever. Bet all those real cave-dwellers couldn’t wait to find out what the French discovered after spending a million plus bucks.”
Notes:
*Brito, Renata. Out of the Cave: French isolation study ends after 40 days. Phys.org. 24 April 2021. Online at https://phys.org/news/2021-04-cave-french-isolation-days.html Accessed April 24, 2021. The story was reported by the Associate Press.
**If you would like to read about Dr. Croghan’s experiment, see the National Park Service’s story at file:///Users/Taylor/Downloads/Tuberculosis%20in%20Mammoth%20Cave%20(U.S.%20National%20Park%20Service).html
“No, Gwendolyn, I didn’t. Who volunteers for such stuff? And why 40 days, is it some biblical thing, like wandering with Moses for 40 years or taking your canteen to walk with Jesus for 40 days? You know, that number 40 has biblical significance, don’t you? It represents a period of trial. Think the 40 days of Lent for a modern equivalent. Or, now, I’ll think of 15 cave people who drop the last letters of words and names. Did they build les maisons in the caves or sleep on the cave floor in a pile of bat droppings? And what’s the deal with not pronouncing that final ‘s’ in maisons?”
“Well, you don’t say ‘I-k-now,’ so what’s the deal with not pronouncing the ‘k’ or the ‘w’ in the word know when, as the French would say without pronouncing the ‘s,’ ‘tu parles’ or without saying the ‘z,’ ‘vous parlez’? How did we get on French pronunciation? I was asking if you knew about the experiment that involved 15 people living in a dark cave.”
“Okay, Gwen, so 15 Frenchmen went into a cave to live. Big deal. What was the point? Native Americans, heck, people all over the world lived in caves before we learned to build les maisons we live in today.”
“I was reading the article, Sam, because the cost of the experiment run by the Human Adaption Institute was $1.5 million. One and a half million bucks! They called the experiment 'Deep Time.' What’s wrong with people. Over a million bucks to stick people in a cave that cavemen, not just the Homo sapiens sapiens ones, but the Neanderthal ones, also, did for free. I remember going on one of the Mammoth Cave tours during which the park ranger explained how a Dr. Croghan put tuberculosis patients in the cave because the air in there was supposed to cure them.” **
“How did that work out?”
“Not well, as you can imagine. There’s an interesting quotation from one of the people who used to serve the en-caved people. Alfred, a guy who served meals to them, said, ‘I used to stand on that rock and flow the horn to call them to dinner. There were 15 of them and they looked more like a company of skeletons than anything else.’ That was back in the winter of 1842. After five of his experimental cave dwellers died, Dr. Croghan ended the experiment. You can still see two of the stone maisons in the cave. This is 2021. What the heck were the people at the Human Adaption Institute thinking? Or, should I ask, ‘What the heck were the people of the institute ingesting?’”
“What did they eat, by the way?”
“Get this. Get this. With their food the French cave-dwellers also swallowed little capsules with thermometers that transmitted data to a portable computer. That is, the thermometers transmitted until they pooped them out. A million and a half bucks! A MILLION AND A HALF! How many poor people actually living in caves today could have had an apartment with electricity and running water for that amount? Did you know that the L.A. Times once ran a story that there were 30 million Chinese currently living in caves? Talk about a breeding ground for tuberculosis! And it’s not just the Chinese. There are not 15, but fifteen hundred people living in caves in Coober Pedy, Australia. Twenty-first century, and people are still living in caves. And not only those who have no alternative housing, but 15 volunteer Frenchmen!”
“I see this has you pretty worked up, Gwen. Certainly, there must have been some science behind these experimental cave-dwellers.”
“Yeah. Big science, Sam. The ‘scientists’ wanted to monitor sleep patterns, social interactions, and behavioral reactions. Couldn’t just go ask 30 million Chinese cave-dwellers or 1,500 cave-dwellers in Coober Pedy. Had to spend a million and a half bucks on something that actual cave-dwellers do free—well, that is, except for swallowing a tiny thermometer. And the 30 million in China and 1,500 in Coober Pedy just don’t live in caves for 40 biblical days of trial; they live there year ‘round, every year, every decade. And surprise, surprise. What happened? As you could guess, the French people in the experiment lost track of how long they were in the cave. Geez. Even Dr. Croghan’s tuberculosis patients had watches, and that was way back in the mid nineteenth century. And then, when the French cave-dwellers emerged, they supposedly looked ‘visibly tired.’ Surprised? Me neither. But, million-and-a-half-buck experimenters included a ‘chronobiologist,’ I guess some guy who works with biological clocks to draw some conclusion. I actually don’t care. Adaptation Institute, Adaption, whatever. What about the people thrown into the Black Hole of Calcutta? What about people thrown into a dark trailer to be smuggled across the U. S. border with Mexico? What about those times when I was so tired, I fell into a deep sleep and awoke not knowing for a moment how long I slept or even where I was?”
“Sounds as though Dr. Croghan’s turberculosis experiment missed the mark on all he could have studied.”
“No. He and the others in Mammoth Cave knew that they were in sync. What’s that they say about college girls living as roommates? Of course, people living together sync their lives, whether they live in darkness or in light. By the way, did I mention that they laid out the dead tuberculosis patients on a rock now known as Corpse Rock? So, anyway, Dr. Croghan didn’t run a high-tech experiment just as the Chinese cave-dwellers aren’t running a high-tech experiment with poopable thermometers. What Croghan and the others noted about living in a dark, damp cave was what any of us would have noted about human interactions without spending a million and a half dollars. In fact, aren’t we always observing sleep habits, synced lives, and behavioral adaptations? I guess all the twenty-first century cave-dwellers around the world don’t know they are running an experiment in human adaptation, or adaption, or whatever. Bet all those real cave-dwellers couldn’t wait to find out what the French discovered after spending a million plus bucks.”
Notes:
*Brito, Renata. Out of the Cave: French isolation study ends after 40 days. Phys.org. 24 April 2021. Online at https://phys.org/news/2021-04-cave-french-isolation-days.html Accessed April 24, 2021. The story was reported by the Associate Press.
**If you would like to read about Dr. Croghan’s experiment, see the National Park Service’s story at file:///Users/Taylor/Downloads/Tuberculosis%20in%20Mammoth%20Cave%20(U.S.%20National%20Park%20Service).html
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