Which activities are possible in terms of being achieveable by a human being… but are so on the furthermost outer bounds of endeveour that they become close to impossible, but not quite?
For example, I would say using a modern aircraft that doesn’t have the capabilities of the Russian-made MiG-29’s, yet can pull off similiar (and I use the term loosely) aerial manouvres (both under combat pressure and in formation flying). That to me would be on the outer fringes of the possible, but still do-able. Even though it would require an extraordinary pilot.
What kinds of feat/activity/events are there that are like this, which require someone who is extraordinarily adept to pull it off (and I don’t mean something that a lot of people can repeat - like normal combat flying/synchronised swimming/rally driving) - something that only a handful of us in the world could achieve?
I’ll admit, what inspired this thread was this article by Cecil. In it he mentions that rolling a 747 plane relies heavily on the skill of the pilot - the margin of error is greatly increased with a larger plane. So someone with more “magic hands” should handle it.
So, who do you think best achieves something like this?
How about shooting rapid-fire witha pistol in either hand at a target 100 yards away and hitting the bullseye with each and every shot? Should be feasible in theory, but it would take an almost superhuman feat of marksmanship to pull it off.
Being able to write with both hands, each independant of the other. ie: writing a novel and a shopping list at the same time.
Extreme speed reading. Not the fake stuff where you only focus on keywords or such, but being able to parrot out, word for word a book after reading it a 5secs/page.
flying a fighter pilot WITHOUT computer assistance.
Simultaneously playing a huge number of Chess/Go games blind (I suspect Go would be more challenging)
There are some people who can apparently hum at two tones simultaneously. Try holding two simultaneous conversations.
Modern combat, both at a strategic level and at a ground level. There are too many factors for a human to perform even close to optimally.
What about free-diving? Pipin (Francisco Ferreras) did 162 meters (530 feet) on one breathe of air that should have killed him in Jan. 2000. He now wants to go for 200 meters (623 feet!) below the surface…
3.5 minutes from surface to 162 meters down on an 80lbs sled and then rocket back up holding onto a balloon. Talk about an E-ticket ride. The pressure exerted on the body at that depth is enormous. At sea level it is around 14.7 PSI (1 atmosphere) acting on your body. For every 10 meters down you go it increases by 1 atmosphere, so 160 meters = 17 atmospheres, or 14.7*17 = 250 PSI! Let’s say his average lung capacity was 6.5 liters (a good athlete). His chest would have compressed from over 3 2-liter bottles of soda to a 12-once can.
The karate level I was atempting to name requires mortal combat - hence the 1/2 of all who try (the other half dies). This was outlawed in Japan by the US occupation forces, I think.
