What would YOU do in these hypothetical scenarios?

[U.P. Cinnabar]

I can't speak for Simon, but me, no, no one I've known, not even my former co-workers, was dumb enough to bring a generator into their residence, because even they knew CO=bad thing.

I did not know, off the top of my head, that using a generator inside was dangerous. The car thing yes, but safe generator practices are pretty outside the realm of things I know about or for that matter had ever thought about.

Portable jennies are either diesel or gasolone-powered, so same basic principle applies in terms of CO poisoning.

[Broomstick]

My household has a solar generator that's portable, although a deep cycle battery is needed to really make it truly practical as anything other than a stop-gap, and solar systems have nowhere near the the capacity of petro-chemically fueled ones.

Also, you have to be careful even with the batteries - some types can give off toxic gasses so even those you wouldn't want in your living space.

[Simon_Jester]

I do agree that he is getting better a proposing scenarios, even if the current crop is still deeply flawed. This indicates a willingness to learn that should be encouraged if possible.

Yeah. I want to see him actually think through a logical course of action in one of his own scenarios.

[Bernkastel]

Certainly. You do encounter a lot of people online that say stupid things and a lot of them are really unwilling to learn or listen. At the moment, Archinist does seem willing to do both to a degree. He does have potential, but he really needs to learn to think through his posts logically.

[Lord Revan]

Indeed I mean these scenarios were still implaucibly stupid but with little tuning they could be stupid but plaucible, unlike like the previous "what if"s that demanded pretty much everyone in the world to be dummer then my 3-year old nephew. So he's improving though he still has some distance to go.

[TimothyC]

For the purposes of this exercise, I will use Simon_Jester as 'my mate' because I know the man and I can semi-accurately predict what he will do in various situations (this was demonstrated the time I got inside of his decision loop on a road trip to a mutual friend's wedding). He's not my best friend so much as my evil clone/opposite.

1. That's not his car, and he doesn't drink and drive so while I call the police about this, I know it's not him.
2. Call the cops on noise ordinances
3. Call emergency services on him, but he's not stupid enough to do this in the first place
4. I'm unmarried, but none of the women I have ever had a relationship with would ever be this dumb - all of them either were taking, or had taken college level chemistry either at the time we were together.
5. I park on the street (or in a parking lot) because I don't think Simon has the three car garage that would be needed for me to be willing to take a spot in the garage.
6. I don't eat dodgey fish, and I don't go camping - ever. Also, again, none of my girlfriends have ever been that asinine.

[Simon_Jester]

You know, it's funny... Archinist has been active as recently as this morning, but he hasn't posted anything in this thread in two days. Eh. There might be a good explanation, I guess?

[Archinist]

You know, it's funny... Archinist has been active as recently as this morning, but he hasn't posted anything in this thread in two days. Eh. There might be a good explanation, I guess?

I don't actually log my account off, though. The only reason it gets logged out at all is because of the automatic logout. I haven't posted any other threads, though.

Plus, it takes a while to think things up. I might have something tomorrow provided this thread isn't locked by then..

[Rhadamantus]

Ok, I think it's safe to say that Archinist has ghosted the thread.

[bilateralrope]

My household has a solar generator that's portable,

Lets make the second scenario strange: How would everyone here react if they knew that the generator in question was a solar generator ?

[Archinist]

Well, in the first scenario I would probably call out the mate's name a few times and glance around the area a bit, and then after looking at the blood-like substance on the ground, I might call the emergencies up. But after the call was ended, or at least gotten past the most important parts, I'd probably explore the area a bit further and definitely follow the blood trail to wherever it led. Since there are also magically hanging laptops on the trees, I'd be very curious on how the devices somehow got themselves tied up a single tree branch many meters away from the car, since they were flung they would probably not get tied.

However, other people have mentioned taking a weapon for some reason. Any hostile person or entity (non-fictional) would be very unlikely, so I would not bother with spending 10 minutes or so salvaging a suitable weapon from the car, not to mention that a dodgey steel pipe wouldn't be very effective against a knife or a gun and would also very noisy to carry around.


In the second scenario, I'd probably just watch it happen for a few minutes, maybe call the non-emergency police line if it was too noisy, and maybe call the emergency line if it looked dangerous to be generally in the area.


3rd. I'd probably drive over and look around with a powerful spotlight and some useful tools (depending on where I lived, etc). I mean, the reason why I wouldn't have reacted sooner and called an ambulance/fire team was because I'd assume the mate had gotten a exhaust hose to a safe place outside the house and probably a ventilation room to put the generator inside, and not had the generator actually pumping fumes into the house. I'd probably just assume that he had gotten drunk or gone out without his phone, etc etc, but after that long I'd drive around.

I'd probably knock at the door and call out a few times, if there was no response I'd probably look around the house and circle it a few times from outside the fence perimeter to see what was going on inside. If I was in the USA or another highly dangerous area, I'd probably just leave and try to contact him in the next day, and if still not, call the police later, since I'd probably get shot by the neighbors if I stayed around too long/entered his property.

If I lived somewhere reasonably safe, I'd probably snoop around the back yard and look through the windows and plan any further actions on that.


4th. I'd probably call back reasonably quickly a few times and then if I lived far away, I'd probably summon an EMS hazard service quickly, if I lived closer I'd probably try a mixture of driving over and call an EMS. However, if the house was locked with no reply, I still wouldn't force entrance because that might be dangerous even in a safe area.


5th. I'd probably investigate the garage to see if there was a manual release thingy for garage door, then I'd probably look around the garage for tools, and if I didn't find any I'd go online and check the symptoms of CMP to make sure I'm not making things up and then probably look at a bunch of useless nonse, make some noise at the door which is utterly fruitless considering that the mates would be playing deafeningly loud music and all of them would be absolutely pissed drunk and useless, so then I'd probably just wait around the garage looking at things on the internet and wait to die.


6th. If all the other mates were eating the fish, then I'd see no problem in joining them and eating it as well. Plus it would look rude if I was to decline it because the fish was a bit dubious, so I'd eat it. If there were some other people declining it, and the hosting mates didn't look too angered then I'd definitely decline it. Well it all depends on the situation of course.

On the morning campsite, well I'd probably look up the symptoms on the internet for a little bit and then hope it's nothing and then wait a little, google them again and look at each symptom and ignore the bits where it says each symptom might not appear and just think that because I might not have all of them that means everything is fine and ignore it for more time still and procrastinate on other times trying to ignore it and eventually die.


The solar generator's batteries might have gone a bit wrong, so the mate might have been poisoned by gases fumes, or they might have caught fire and burned him when he was close by, or used the smoke from the burning house fire to suffocate him. If there were no batteries, then what if the mate had accidentally killed himself with the electricity?

I suppose that could easily happen if he didn't know what he was doing and didn't know what he was doing and was wiring it up properly to the house and not just plugging some random devices into the house just to use as a backup emergency power source to power his phone and his computer and his lights, I guess.

[Simon_Jester]

It seems like your answers, while in many cases BAD answers, show considerably more common sense than you expect other people to show in your scenarios. Remember, other people are likely to respond to a problem by being at least as smart and creative as you.

Okay, now let us REFLECT on your answers, so that we can think and learn and be stronger smarter people.

Well, in the first scenario I would probably call out the mate's name a few times and glance around the area a bit, and then after looking at the blood-like substance on the ground, I might call the emergencies up. But after the call was ended, or at least gotten past the most important parts, I'd probably explore the area a bit further and definitely follow the blood trail to wherever it led. Since there are also magically hanging laptops on the trees, I'd be very curious on how the devices somehow got themselves tied up a single tree branch many meters away from the car, since they were flung they would probably not get tied.

However, other people have mentioned taking a weapon for some reason. Any hostile person or entity (non-fictional) would be very unlikely, so I would not bother with spending 10 minutes or so salvaging a suitable weapon from the car, not to mention that a dodgey steel pipe wouldn't be very effective against a knife or a gun and would also very noisy to carry around.

Lessons learned:

1) If there is blood on the ground, it probably got there for a reason. That blood used to be on the inside of someone's body, now it is on the outside. Something pretty drastic must have happened. It might be just a random accident, but it is also very possible that someone has been attacked or wounded. Also, accident victims usually stay in the vicinity of the accident, or are too injured to move quickly. People who've shed a lot of blood usually don't move around much. Do not assume "violence is improbable" as an explanation for why there's a pool of blood on the ground and more blood trailing off into the distance. On the contrary, violence is a very likely explanation. Act as though there are violent people or animals lurking in the forest, and it is likely they did something to your friend.

2) Twenty bottles of beer (which you specified) is too many. If there are roughly twenty open bottles of beer, then if one person drank all that they would be both passed out drunk, and probably painfully, painfully full of water, because that is about six or seven liters of fluid at least. The presence of that many beer bottles strewn around the ground indicates a group of people were present.

Both (1) and (2) suggest DANGER! You should be extremely cautious 'investigating' what is happening. Especially if you are not armed, and are not experienced in avoiding violent harm. It is better to wait for the police.

The laptops are interesting but ultimately not very important, because a human being, who is your friend, is in DANGER! Whatever has happened to the laptops, it can wait until all human beings in the situation are safe and/or imprisoned for their crimes. Which leads to a third lesson:

3) Do not become distracted by shinies. Valuable objects, or toys you'd like to play with, or pretty things, are ultimately not important compared to human lives. Especially not compared to YOUR life. Act to preserve your life and safety first, and worry about property later.

=====================================

In the second scenario, I'd probably just watch it happen for a few minutes, maybe call the non-emergency police line if it was too noisy, and maybe call the emergency line if it looked dangerous to be generally in the area.

This is actually the correct response. Congratulations!

Now, why would you expect other people to do anything different than this? Can you think of any reason why this wouldn't be a normal reaction?

Incidentally, normal people DO this, which is why the kind of behavior you describe these hooligans doing isn't normal in most parts of society. Because if you make enough noise and trouble, someone calls the police.

Lesson learned:

4) People don't just sit there and let bad or annoying things happen to them. They react, just as you would react. Most of them have enough knowledge and life experience that their actions will help them solve the problem in an effective way, unless the scale of the problem is too big for their resources and skills. But even when they lack the ability to fix things easily, they still act, they don't just sit there and let a problem crush them.

=====================================

3rd. I'd probably drive over and look around with a powerful spotlight and some useful tools (depending on where I lived, etc). I mean, the reason why I wouldn't have reacted sooner and called an ambulance/fire team was because I'd assume the mate had gotten a exhaust hose to a safe place outside the house and probably a ventilation room to put the generator inside, and not had the generator actually pumping fumes into the house. I'd probably just assume that he had gotten drunk or gone out without his phone, etc etc, but after that long I'd drive around.

I'd probably knock at the door and call out a few times, if there was no response I'd probably look around the house and circle it a few times from outside the fence perimeter to see what was going on inside. If I was in the USA or another highly dangerous area, I'd probably just leave and try to contact him in the next day, and if still not, call the police later, since I'd probably get shot by the neighbors if I stayed around too long/entered his property.

If I lived somewhere reasonably safe, I'd probably snoop around the back yard and look through the windows and plan any further actions on that.

So basically, your friend dies. By the time you show up it's far too late to do anything about it, and sneaking around will just make it more likely you'll be accused of somehow murdering him. Your friend dies. And it's your fault for being lazy and clueless.

Lessons learned:

5) Take an interest. Care what other people are doing, do not just shrug and go "whatever" if they are doing things that sound like they might be dangerous. Especially if they sound drunk, or tired, or like they might be poisoned. Be active in asking people questions: "Are you okay? Stay on the line with me, man. Are you sure it's not the generator exhaust getting to you? Stay awake." If people mention doing something that sounds dangerous, talk to them, don't just assume they have things under control. It's much better to be thought of as the person who asks a few vaguely annoying questions because they're worried about their friend's safety, than to be thought of as the clueless donkey who let their friend die because they couldn't be bothered to ask a few simple questions.

6) Act quickly. Your friend might still be alive if you had dropped what you were doing and acted immediately. You had reason to think they were in danger. They did nothing to assure you they knew about the danger, or had fixed the danger. Your decision not to get off your butt, and to sit around to finish your game of Call of Duty or whatever may have cost your friend his life. If you think real danger is involved, act immediately, not after hours of time. Almost every problem, even tiny ones, is easier to deal with NOW than it will be in six hours when it's had time to grow out of control.

7) To underline lesson (2), if you think a life or death emergency has taken place, especially if you think someone has died, call emergency services immediately.

Do not wander around "investigating" yourself. You might wander into a big cloud of carbon-monoxide-rich air and die. You might leave evidence of your presence that causes the police to suspect that the whole thing was actually a murder scene- in which case even if you are found innocent, your life is massively disrupted and harmed.

4th. I'd probably call back reasonably quickly a few times and then if I lived far away, I'd probably summon an EMS hazard service quickly, if I lived closer I'd probably try a mixture of driving over and call an EMS. However, if the house was locked with no reply, I still wouldn't force entrance because that might be dangerous even in a safe area.

This situation is basically the same as (3) in all relevant ways- only now it's your wife who died because you were reckless, lazy, and didn't act on your suspicions and concerns.

Wives are a big deal. Real women (in addition to not being dumb enough to do this kind of thing, usually) also KNOW about things like this. If they know you are reckless and lazy, they won't want to marry you, or even date you. Reckless lazy men hurt the people in their lives. People don't volunteer to be hurt that way. So...

8 ) If you ever want to marry, learn to be active, intelligent, and responsible.

5th. I'd probably investigate the garage to see if there was a manual release thingy for garage door, then I'd probably look around the garage for tools, and if I didn't find any I'd go online and check the symptoms of CMP to make sure I'm not making things up and then probably look at a bunch of useless nonse, make some noise at the door which is utterly fruitless considering that the mates would be playing deafeningly loud music and all of them would be absolutely pissed drunk and useless, so then I'd probably just wait around the garage looking at things on the internet and wait to die.

You'd give up that quickly? Pathetic. More lessons learned:

9) Anything is better than death. Be resourceful. Be persistent. You have literally nothing to lose. For example, did it occur to you that maybe you could just turn the car back on, if the CO level isn't high enough to trigger the automatic sensors, and back out of the garage right through the door? It'd be a desperate tactic, but you can do that. Sure, you'd smash your friend's garage door, but it's much better to have to deal with the consequences of that than to be dead.

If you have Internet access, you can contact people electronically. I bet emergency services take email as well as phone calls. If you have literally nothing to lose, spend your last moments on that. Did you think of that? Also, reflect on a few other things...

10) Discipline yourself. This whole scenario only became dangerous because you got angry during a phone conversation with your girlfriend, right? Why did you allow yourself to become angry? Why did you remain in a dangerous space with bad air while having this argument? What was the argument even about, that you didn't just smile, nod, and say "okay, honey?" Why the hell did you throw your phone and break it? Most of those were stupid decisions. The combination of all those stupid decisions is why, when you tried to say "the scenario starts AFTER you've already done these things," most people didn't accept it. Most of us wouldn't do all those stupid things.

6th. If all the other mates were eating the fish, then I'd see no problem in joining them and eating it as well. Plus it would look rude if I was to decline it because the fish was a bit dubious, so I'd eat it. If there were some other people declining it, and the hosting mates didn't look too angered then I'd definitely decline it. Well it all depends on the situation of course.

On the morning campsite, well I'd probably look up the symptoms on the internet for a little bit and then hope it's nothing and then wait a little, google them again and look at each symptom and ignore the bits where it says each symptom might not appear and just think that because I might not have all of them that means everything is fine and ignore it for more time still and procrastinate on other times trying to ignore it and eventually die.

Lessons learned:

11) Don't eat dangerous food. You live in a developed country (this is obvious). Food is plentiful. Food that has even a small chance of killing you should not be eaten, you should get something else to eat instead.

12) Your 'mates' opinion of you is much less important than your life and your health. You can replace your friends with friends who are not moronic sub-bogans. You cannot replace your body with a new body if this one gets damaged. And if these friends are anything other than terrible people anyway, they will understand and support your desire to be safe by not eating food that might kill you. Any person who does stupid, reckless things, and expects YOU to do stupid, reckless things with them, and will think less of you if you don't... that person is not your friend.

13) Do not go do difficult things when you are sick. If you get sick, and decide to drive, the sickness might cause you to lose control of your car. You might be farther from medical help if something goes wrong. You will, if nothing else, be incredibly uncomfortable the entire time. Stay close to home. Find a doctor.

14) Do not do optional recreational things when you are sick. Cancel your plans. All the things you think are fun when you're healthy? Most of them aren't very fun when you're sick. Camping trips are no fun at all when you're sick, I speak from experience, because basic physical tasks like "walk around" and "pitch a tent" become exhausting or even impossible.

15) Do not marry a callous jackass. Marry someone who will cancel their plans to take care of you when you're in danger or weakened. Marry someone who will actually care if you tell them you're in serious pain. Marry someone who gives a damn about you. Marry someone who will not just assume you're lying or pretending that there's a problem.

And (going back to make sure YOU are not a callous jackass, because then no one will want to marry YOU.

[bilateralrope]

On the morning campsite, well I'd probably look up the symptoms on the internet for a little bit .

No cellphone coverage, but there is internet access. That seems a bit odd.

[Lord Revan]

On the morning campsite, well I'd probably look up the symptoms on the internet for a little bit .

No cellphone coverage, but there is internet access. That seems a bit odd.

seems odd indeed, there's places in Finland you probably couldn't get internet access and there's places without cellphone access(though most these places have no internet either as they're middle of nowhere), but I can't think of any place that did have internet access but not phone access either thru a landline or the cellnetwork.

[Zeropoint]

Well, he's at his mate's place. Maybe he doesn't have cell phone coverage but he can get on his mate's wifi?

Edit: EVEN SO, if your thought process goes from "holy shit, I'm dying of carbon monoxide poisoning!" to "I should get online and do some web browsing" . . . maybe your resulting death is Darwin at work.

[Simon_Jester]

Yeah. Here we see shades of the "I don't know how to solve this problem, so I'm just going to give up and act randomly" brainbug.

Thing is, in a real emergency this is literally the equivalent of sticking a gun to your head and pulling the trigger. So most people don't do that.

[Broomstick]

Panic - because that behavior is a feature of panic - does, once in awhile, result in a random result that is actually helpful. But it's very rare. Which is why it should be a last-ditch "solution" and it's much better to become sufficiently acquainted with reality so as to have actually useful behavior patterns for critical situations.

Simon Jester is covering most of my thoughts on Archinist's response. Even more than before, I get the notion that Archinist is young and inexperienced. Fortunately, time and experience usually do correct any deficiencies that might arise from those conditions.

[bilateralrope]

Well, he's at his mate's place. Maybe he doesn't have cell phone coverage but he can get on his mate's wifi?

The no cell coverage is at the camp site.


Though getting internet access at his mates place after smashing his phone means he's carrying some other device, like a laptop, that can connect to the wifi. That's plausible.

[Ziggy Stardust]

5th. I'd probably investigate the garage to see if there was a manual release thingy for garage door, then I'd probably look around the garage for tools, and if I didn't find any I'd go online and check the symptoms of CMP to make sure I'm not making things up and then probably look at a bunch of useless nonse, make some noise at the door which is utterly fruitless considering that the mates would be playing deafeningly loud music and all of them would be absolutely pissed drunk and useless, so then I'd probably just wait around the garage looking at things on the internet and wait to die.

How are you looking at things on the internet? You said you smashed your phone. So do you have a laptop on you?

If so, why would you just "look at things on the internet" instead of using the internet to call for help? Even if you didn't realize that you can e-mail or even CALL emergency services if you have an internet connection (you can make phone-calls via Skype or any number of website services!), why wouldn't you think to post on Facebook or e-mail friends, family, bosses, coworkers, or contact ANYONE to let them know you are in a bad situation? Hell, you could just post on reddit or Twitter and someone will almost certainly contact emergency services (redditors have, IIRC, prevented suicides in similar fashion).

[Broomstick]

Yep - post on a chat room or reddit or even a forum like this where you are and your area code (in the US - obviously this will vary somewhat in other countires) and perfect strangers will call the 911 in your area and say "hey, internet post for an emergency - send someone here" and it will happen.

By the way, folks - that's how you do it when you need to contact emergency services outside of your area in the US. You dial the area code of where the emergency is, then 911. So, for example, if someone is texting/posting an emergency from the Chicago Loop you'd dial 1-312-911 to get the proper 911 center.

Not sure where Archinist is, the UK? If so, someone from there tell him how to do this in your country. Just in case he ever needs it.

[Archinist]

Yep - post on a chat room or reddit or even a forum like this where you are and your area code (in the US - obviously this will vary somewhat in other countires) and perfect strangers will call the 911 in your area and say "hey, internet post for an emergency - send someone here" and it will happen.

By the way, folks - that's how you do it when you need to contact emergency services outside of your area in the US. You dial the area code of where the emergency is, then 911. So, for example, if someone is texting/posting an emergency from the Chicago Loop you'd dial 1-312-911 to get the proper 911 center.

Not sure where Archinist is, the UK? If so, someone from there tell him how to do this in your country. Just in case he ever needs it.

Nothing will happen. Depending on the reddit, they would probably either just troll it for a little while or delete the post. And what if you don't have a microphone on you at all times?

[Broomstick]

Why the FUCK do you need a microphone? You clearly are capable of typing. This is why you are so frustrating to deal with - you say very stupid things. Are you even vaguely aware that deaf people who can neither hear nor speak intelligibly, have had means of contacting 911 for decades? Or do you think we just let them fucking die? without recourse?

And, as already indicated people HAVE called for help over the internet and others HAVE relayed that information to emergency services and there HAVE been lives saved. Why are you denying reality and actual facts?


Angry parrot is angry at YOU!

[Tribble]

Yep - post on a chat room or reddit or even a forum like this where you are and your area code (in the US - obviously this will vary somewhat in other countires) and perfect strangers will call the 911 in your area and say "hey, internet post for an emergency - send someone here" and it will happen.

By the way, folks - that's how you do it when you need to contact emergency services outside of your area in the US. You dial the area code of where the emergency is, then 911. So, for example, if someone is texting/posting an emergency from the Chicago Loop you'd dial 1-312-911 to get the proper 911 center.

Not sure where Archinist is, the UK? If so, someone from there tell him how to do this in your country. Just in case he ever needs it.

Nothing will happen. Depending on the reddit, they would probably either just troll it for a little while or delete the post. And what if you don't have a microphone on you at all times?

As others have pointed out, there are several things you should try before using the internet to call for help:

first of all turn the car off unless you are planning on using it to ram the garage door

Look for avenues of escape: the door may be locked, but what about the garage door? What a bout windows?

as you pointed out, look for the switch to open the garage door (assuming it is automatic). If the switch is broken, most garage doors will have a manual override so that you can open the door

if the garage door was manual to begin with, then open the garage door and leave

beep the car horn repeatedly. Car horns are loud and are meant to draw attention to yourself. Chances are your friend and/or the neighbours will come to investigate

If you feel it's necessary, break the door into your friends house. Doors are actually pretty easy to break into, especially if you have tools (and seeing as you are in a garage, odds are there will be some tools around that you can use.

Or you could just put your car into reverse and drive through the garage door to escape. It's better to pay for a garage door than it is to die. Just sayin'.

Using your laptop should be at the bottom of the priority list given that there are a number of better options that you could use to try and escape. Most laptops these days also have built in microphones, so that shouldn't be an issue for you. I wouldn't waste time using reddit, as there are various ways you can contact your emergency services via the internet (as others have poibted out, just use skype to call 911). And you are perfectly capable of emailing emergency services directly, I believe. Really though, the laptop shouldn't be necessary, as the other methods are way faster.

@Broomstick

This is why I disagree with other's assessments that Archinist's scenarios have been improving. In all of his "scenarios" so far he wants a specific answer to his questions, and if he fails to get the response he wants he shifts the goalposts and/or makes up some excuse as to why our particular solution wouldn't work. It doesn't matter how good the scenario starts off, it will turn into nonsense if he doesn't get the answers he was looking for. The biggest problem of course is that his railroading attempts are very amateurish and are easy to spot from a mile away.


So Archinist, what exactly are you looking for in this case? It can't be our responses given that you seem to be trying to refute them when possible. Were you hoping we'd all say "we do something stupid and/or give up and die"? Were we supposed to be secretly suicidal and hoping that these scenarios will kill us while making it look like an accident?

[Archinist]

Y

[/quote]

You obviously didn't actually read the scenario properly. The car is locked, because left the keys inside the car and opened door, locked door and closed door. Now you are locked outside your car, which is still running. The garage-house key is inside the car. The garage-outside key is also inside your car.

The garage door opens automatically for people outside, the reason for this being that your mate set it up so that other mates could easily drive in and out of the garage.

Why the FUCK do you need a microphone? You clearly are capable of typing. This is why you are so frustrating to deal with - you say very stupid things. Are you even vaguely aware that deaf people who can neither hear nor speak intelligibly, have had means of contacting 911 for decades? Or do you think we just let them fucking die? without recourse?

And, as already indicated people HAVE called for help over the internet and others HAVE relayed that information to emergency services and there HAVE been lives saved. Why are you denying reality and actual facts?

Angry parrot is angry at YOU!

[/quote][/quote]

Um, because phone calls require sound to go through. I'm pretty sure skype also requires a microphone, though I've never used it.

Most people who have called 911 on from the internet are either swatter trolls, people in a VERY local forum, such as a forum for only real-life friends. I doubt there would be any place where people commonly call 911 for a random person over the internet, or else they would be getting thousands of trolls hogging the emergency services every few seconds.

[Ziggy Stardust]

You obviously didn't actually read the scenario properly. The car is locked, because left the keys inside the car and opened door, locked door and closed door. Now you are locked outside your car, which is still running. The garage-house key is inside the car. The garage-outside key is also inside your car.

The garage door opens automatically for people outside, the reason for this being that your mate set it up so that other mates could easily drive in and out of the garage.

Why are you ignoring the dozen alternative options that were described? It is still possible to break through the door into the house, or find tools in the garage to help you break into your car to turn it off, etc. Hell, if it is a matter of life or death BREAK YOUR CAR WINDOW so you can turn it off and get the keys! It is not very difficult to do this.

Um, because phone calls require sound to go through. I'm pretty sure skype also requires a microphone, though I've never used it.

Yes, and all modern laptops have microphones built into them! Even if your laptop's microphone is inexplicably broken, you can just e-mail emergency services (as has been pointed out a fucking dozen times in this thread already, and you continue to ignore). Or contact your friends via email or social media. This isn't that difficult.

Most people who have called 911 on from the internet are either swatter trolls, people in a VERY local forum, such as a forum for only real-life friends.

This isn't even remotely true. Why are you ignoring everyone else's posts? We have pointed out MULTIPLE times in this thread that 911 situations have been resolved through sites like Reddit. Complete strangers have and do save other people's lives via the internet. Hell, there is an entire subreddit called "Suicide Watch" that has been set up JUST FOR THIS VERY REASON.

I doubt there would be any place where people commonly call 911 for a random person over the internet, or else they would be getting thousands of trolls hogging the emergency services every few seconds.