We have a new member of the team this week Ciaran, so although this blog says that it was written by me it wasn’t – this is all Ciaran’s work and his thoughts and comments, enjoy.
Unless you have been living under a rock recently you should all be aware of Austrian Daredevil Felix Baumgartner jumping out of a balloon at the edge of space, and very impressive it was to. However, more and more people have been asking why he did it at all. Why would anyone in their right mind put their life in such peril?
There’s no argument that the actual jump made for very addictive viewing. If you were like me then you will have been watching with your heart in your mouth thinking about how nervous Felix must have been. So, why were there so many people watching, so many in fact that it broke Youtube’s record for the number of live viewers?
The simple answer is that we all thought he was going to die and like the morbid creatures we are, we want to watch. The deeper answer however, is that we are at are most awed and amazed, when watching something happen, that has never happened before.
All the greatest (and the worst) achievements of the 21st century have been broadcast. They were watched by millions live and will be watched by billions when they are replayed, and for good reason. They are our greatest achievements and deserve the air time.
Mr Baumgartner’s jump is a great achievement and we all should’ve watched it. However, after the jump comes the fall.
Ever since he touched down people have been undermining the point of his jump. Asking why he really did it, how much money will he get and what reward beyond financial he will gain. I think that they are completely missing the point.
He is a man of firsts. He broke the sound barrier, the first skydiver ever to do that. He jumped from the highest anyone has ever jumped. It’s an amazing achievement and one I’m sure my children will read about when they go to school. So whatever personal reasons he had for the jump, whatever monetary incentive. He jumped, Simple as that.
Not only is it exceptional that he did it, survived and that it was broadcast, now it means that high altitude pilots can eject and not die instantly. It has increased the knowledge and understanding of what the human body can endure, the speed it can travel at, improve the development of space travel through space suits to name but a few.
The list is vast, and it definitely makes any concerns over his safety worth it. After all he has probably saved scores of lives in the future.
The world should be glad that Felix jumped out from the edge of space and fell from higher and faster than anyone else has before, because now it means we can all do it- and better still we know that we will live. We now know that humans can go that far up, jump out, break the speed barrier and survive. We didn’t know that before. Now we do.