In pretty messed up news, a Lithuanian artist has created plans for a ‘death rollercoaster’ that would give those who ride it a ‘euphoric’ way for people to kill themselves.
Yes really. Julijona Urbonas says the ride would end people’s lives with ‘euphoria and pleasure’, but a top brain expert believes it’s more likely leave people wanting to chunder according to the Daily Mail.
Urbonas designed the rollercoaster as a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art and uses ‘extreme g-force’ to kill people. It would reach a speed of 100 metres per second, (10 g’s) on seven loops.
When presenting the design, he said:
Your blood is rushed to your lower extremities so there is a lack of blood in your brain, so your brain starts to suffocate. When your brain starts to suffocate, people become euphoric.Usually pilots experience such extreme forces for just a few seconds, but riders in the rollercoaster experience it for one minute and nobody has experienced this for such a long time.
However, a Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California Antonio Damasio, said it would be more likely that those who decided to do it would experience ‘nausea and discomfort’.
Urbonas has been in rollercoaster development since childhood and says the project is more of an artistic expression, but believes it could help ‘control populations’ and let people leave the world with a thrill.
He added that his death machine could counter ‘boring’ methods of euthanasia used in countries where the practise is legal, but he’s not an advocate of assisted suicide.
It [euthanasia] is executed in an extremely boring fashion, proposing ‘humane’ voluntary death could be more meaningful, personal, ritualistic. Of course, it is not for everybody, very much like thrill rides and horror movies.’
It’s definitely an interesting idea that will get people talking…
