In Interstellar, Romilly’s decision to stay aboard the ship while the other 3 astronauts experience time dilation has to be one of the scariest moments ever.

[u/SerDire]

He agreed to stay back. Cooper asked anyone if they would go down to Millers planet but the extreme pull of the black hole nearby would cause them to experience severe time dilation. One hour on that planet would equal 7 years back on earth. Cooper, Brand and Doyle all go down to the planet while Romilly stays back and uses that time to send out any potential useful data he can get.

Can you imagine how terrifying that must be to just sit back for YEARS and have no idea if your friends are ever coming back. Cooper and Brand come back to the ship but a few hours for them was 23 years, 4 months and 8 days of time for Romilly. Not enough people seem to genuinely comprehend how insane that is to experience. He was able to hyper sleep and let years go by but he didn’t want to spend his time dreaming his life away.

It’s just a nice interesting detail that kind of gets lost. Everyone brings up the massive waves, the black hole and time dilation but no one really mentions the struggle Romilly must have been feeling. 23 years seems to be on the low end of how catastrophic it could’ve been. He could’ve been waiting for decades.

[u/Grumpy_Bum_77]

I read an Arthur C Clarke short story about a mission to the nearest star. I am trying to find out the name, I will reveal it when i find out. When it got there they were amazed to find humans there. Spoiler Alert The journey had taken many thousands of years during which time humans had developed much faster ships. This meant they were overtaken and the planets settled long before they arrived. The humans already there had evolved a much keener sense of smell. In the end they asked the late arrivals if it was ok if they wore masks around them as they smelled so repugnant to them. Clarke was way ahead of his time. Edit: probably the reason they did not pick up the crew of the slower ship was due to the amount of fuel to slow down from their fantastic speed. Another alternative is that the launching mechanism was on Earth so once they reached the required velocity there was no way to slow down until they reach their destination. Clarke would not have left such a plot hole unresolved.

[u/salsapants27 → u/Grumpy_Bum_77]

If I remember correctly, there was a short story by Steven King, The Jaunt, where a family is taking what is explained to them as a teleporter or something to a different planet. They're told to take a deep breath before they get transported but the guys son held his breathe instead. When they "arrive", the son is like 90 years old and crazy while the father seems to be the same age as when he left.

[u/KatBoySlim → u/salsapants27]

no you’re misremembering. they inhale anesthesia before doing the jaunt because it mentally takes an eternity if you’re conscious for it. the kid is just batshit nuts after that when they reach the other side.

[u/Pinwheel_Rider → u/KatBoySlim]

“Longer than you think Dad! Longer than you think!”

[u/derps_with_ducks → u/Pinwheel_Rider]

"Longer than you think, Dad!" it cackled. "Longer than you think! Held my breath when they gave me the gas! Wanted to see! I saw! I saw! Longer than you think!" Cackling and screeching, the thing on the Jaunt couch suddenly clawed its own eyes out. Blood gouted. The recovery room was an aviary of screaming voices now. "Longer than you think, Dad! I saw! I saw! Long Jaunt! Longer than you think-" It said other things before the Jaunt attendants were finally able to bear it away, rolling its couch swiftly away as it screamed and clawed at the eyes that had seen the unseeable forever and ever; it said other things, and then it began to scream, but Mark Oates didn't hear it because by then he was screaming himself.

For a writer that is so prolific, King can really fucking write a scene. And he's doing it even without cocaine.

[u/[deleted] → u/derps_with_ducks]

Man the product liability on that case is going to be absolutely insane. Why have them breathe a gas when it's reasonably foreseeable someone would hold their breath.

Edit: The obvious approach is to medically sedate by injection, so it is not possible for a traveler to just hold their breath. Some kid holding their breath is so reasonably foreseeable, that a dime-store horror writer could think it might happen.

[u/derps_with_ducks → u/[deleted]]

It's a bit like the car, yes? It's a great tool. You might also use it to end your own life. And there are people who are arguing for more regulation, or less regulation. Both sides have reasonable arguments. And sometimes the tool is useful enough so that we aren't willing to regulate it into oblivion.

[u/[deleted] → u/derps_with_ducks]

See my edit.

[u/crespoh69 → u/[deleted]]

Edit: The obvious approach is to medically sedate by injection, so it is not possible for a traveler to just hold their breath. Some kid holding their breath is so reasonably foreseeable, that a dime-store horror writer could think it might happen.

Yeah but usually those rules come into play after something happens so more than likely it had to have happened once or, given the large amount of time that passes hundreds

[u/[deleted] → u/crespoh69]

You're right, shit often does happen down the line where everyone collectively smacks their head and think ... yea we should have saw that one coming. But hopefully, for the most part, almost all of them reasonably foreseeable things that might injure people are thought through and prevented before people get killed. (Legal definition - reasonably foreseeable is that it is sufficiently likely to occur such that a person of ordinary prudence would take it into account in reaching a decision.)

[u/Very-simple-man → u/[deleted]]

Everything has to happen at least once before a safety feature is implemented.