Transcript: Solipsism Syndrome and Space Psychology

On this channel I often talk about wide-ranging topics like space travel, perception and the nature of existence. While I always do it within the framework of science to the best of my abilities, rarely do these topics come together directly -- unless you happen to be floating in space with a leaking space suit pondering the meaning of existence until the air runs out.

But in one instance, they do come together directly. And, potentially, they do it in a very direct and concerning way. It's called Solipsism syndrome, and while no one's sure that the condition even exists, the fact that it possibly does has certain factions in the aerospace industry thinking about designing habitats and spacecraft that help alleviate it as a potential problem.

Solipsism syndrome is ultimately a psychological state. People subjected to extended periods of isolation, such as living in a space colony, may develop a sense that the world around them is not actually real. This would be a disassociative disorder that might make people become indifferent to the outside world, somehow mentally detached from it in a way that they simply can't shake until their isolation ends.

This could be an extremely dangerous situation that runs head long into science fiction territory. Numerous stories have been told, perhaps most famously with the movie "Event Horizon", of astronauts going mad in space. The scary thing is, there are several ways it could actually happen.

Imagine living on a Mars colony. You've been there for a year in total isolation other than your shipmates. If Solipsism syndrome is real, it may begin to not matter to you that the atmosphere outside is toxic. You may just decide to go for a stroll anyway without your helmet completely unconcerned about what's going to happen because you're convinced that none of it is real anyway. Add in the related phenomenon of cabin fever and ... well ... not good.

And it may even become a collective delusion. Mass hysteria is no joke, it's happened multiple times in history to bizarre effect including a 13th century convent of nuns that compulsively meowed like cats at specific times during the day. Another was the dancing plague of 1518 where a collective delusion developed in a town in France that led hundreds of people to dance without resting for weeks on end leading to several deaths. Likewise, a situation may develop where affected astronauts feed off each other's delusions to disastrous results.

And there's an even more dangerous aspect to this. Unlike other delusions, which are typically not valid and do not relate to anything rational, Solipsism syndrome does. Just as it is the case for the disorder's namesake, the philosophical school of thought known as solipsism, there is actually no way to prove that the real world does in fact exist.

It's fully within the realm of science and philosophy to ask that question, see my video "Is the Universe Real, or Is It a Computer Simulation?". But the bottom line is that all you can know is that you exist and everything else comes down to trusting your senses. Stop trusting them or convince yourself that solipsism reflects reality, and you're in trouble.

Add that with concerns about cloisterphobia resulting from being confined to a small habitat for long periods of time, physiological problems of living in a zero-gravity environment, and the fact that you're as far from a hospital as humans have ever been and its easy to see that the health concerns for deep space exploration become a significant issue indeed.

But there are ways to hopefully avoid these problems. One way is very good and frequent communications with people on earth ranging from family to psychologists. While psychologists have always been involved with ensuring the well-being of astronauts, they have in the past had trouble getting enough access to them due to the packed schedules of astronauts. Any long-term mission will need to address the psychological needs of astronauts more carefully than in the past. But there's also no guarantee that astronauts will talk to the psychologists making evaluation even more difficult.

Case in point, the great Skylab mutiny. Psychologically speaking, Skylab 4 got off to a bad start regardless of what happened after. The moment the astronauts opened the hatch, they were confronted with what appeared to be floating bodies. In fact, it was just a joke left by the Skylab 3 crew, they were just dummies in uniforms. But this mission would go on to see the astronauts actively hiding the effects of space adaptation syndrome, an illness that affects about half of all astronauts as they adjust to zero-G, from the doctors on the ground.

And then came the grueling schedule they had to endure. It was a case where the astronauts felt that they were overworked and ground control felt that they were not working hard enough. This led to something of a mutiny where the astronauts took an unauthorized day off. While the work schedule problem was resolved, and in fact the astronauts got more accomplished on the mission than what ground control had planned, it goes to show that psychology is an important factor to account for on space missions.

But none of that should scare us too much. If those hurdles can be overcome, which, no doubt, they can, the habitats and spacecraft themselves can be designed to be more psychologically friendly. As it stands, spacecraft and places like the ISS tend to be designed for utility rather than psychology. This will probably have to change, and with the advent of the superheavy lift rockets for Mars colonization that Elon Musk and others envision, we will be able to do things like have habitats that have gardens, exercise facilities, and wide open large spaces that will help significantly in keeping astronauts from losing it.