As a complete and utter juxtaposition to the usual tech stuff we quibble about here on OSNews, I stumbled upon this interesting video about Samuil, a man who, for the past 20 years, has been living in the middle of the Yakutia wilderness, the coldest place on earth with temperatures that go down to -71°.
This is a story of Samuil. For the past 20 years, Samuil has chosen to live far away from civilization, together with bears and wolves, in one of the harshest environments on Earth.
I’m not going to make some sort of philosophical statement about how this guy’s got it all figured out, and how we, with all our tech, are truly the ones living in the wilderness, because not only would that be incredibly pretentious, it would also be deeply untrue. I’m also not going to make some sort of smug remark about how the guy’s an idiot for living this way, because not only would that be an incredibly douchy thing to say, it would also also be deeply untrue.
A few years ago I moved from the stable, predictable, mild, and gentle climate of the Dutch coast to the harsh, unpredictable, cold, and frozen climate of the north of Sweden, a short distance below the arctic circle. Summers here are short, Spring and Autumn last a few weeks, at best, and for the rest of the year, it’s Winter. Every Winter, temperatures drop to -30°, and most days it’ll hover between -5° and -25°. Adapting to this climate wasn’t easy, and the amount of planning even something as simple as walking to the grocery store can take when it’s -27° can be tiring and frustrating. That one time I brought my kid to preschool when it was -28° wasn’t exactly easy-going either.
At those temperatures, breathing will slowly start to hurt, your nostrils take a massive beating, your eyes are painful, and your facial hair will freeze. Putting on the countless layers of clothing takes forever, and the temperature difference between outside and inside can feel like walking into a wall of ice or fire, respectively. Taking the car requires planning, as you need to plug it in the external heating system for at least two hours before you can use it, and of course, removing the ice and snow off a car in this kind of climate is basically hard labour.
And yet, I love it here. Living in this kind of cold is exhilarating, and it makes you appreciate the comforts of a warm home and modern life much more than I did back in The Netherlands. The transformation from the lush green forests and scattered fields to white, frozen wonderland – and back again – never fails to give me that feeling that somehow we won, again. We survived another Winter. In the comforts of modern civilisation and really not all that dramatic, but still.
I’m definitely not going to say that because of this, I understand Samuil at some deeper level, because I really don’t. The difference between my life and his is a million times bigger than the difference between my life in The Netherlands and my life in Sweden, and I wouldn’t survive more than one or two days in his Winter, and probably end up frozen in a ditch somewhere because I got lost, or mauled by a bear because I’m an idiot and didn’t see it. For people used to mild climates, it may seem like the difference between -30° or -35° is academic, but it really isn’t – once you hit temperatures like these, every single degree starts to matter, and one degree can mean the difference between “extremely cold, but manageable” and “good thing we only wanted two kids”. The temperatures Samuil experiences blow my mind.
In the microcosm that is a site like OSNews, it’s easy to forget just how varied our world really is, but thanks to the same technology we report on, we can experience a slice of life of someone living on his own in the coldest wilderness on earth, and learn that he is not that different from us.
Are those temperatures mentioned °C or °F? Oh, never mind! The video has it right on the first frame.
Isn’t this site supposed to be about operating systems, not this irrelevant nonsense?
Yes, but I think we can permit Thom at least on errant article every few years.
Some people might like the extra layer of humanity that this brings to the site. It is supposed to be a community as well I think. You may not be one of those people.
If off-topic articles become a regular occurrence, I think nasty comments will be in order.
Yep, I can report the site to the proper authorities or did you want to do that?
Please don’t be a douche bag. Thom can post anything he wants on this own damn blog. WTF?
This article is about the exact opposite, which makes it appropriate for the site.
Jeez Minuous,
I think Thom has forgotten the last paragraph; the above was just an introduction to Collapse OS.
@j0scher My megadrive is ready
I liked it
First entry in the FAQ seems to be directed at people like you:
Thom, great blogpost, thank you. Our relationship with nature is very relevant for our relationship with technology. These kinds of stories makes us humble.
Now, I’ll go watch the video 🙂
Inspiring!
Anyone interested in modern life in that region, you can watch these: https://www.youtube.com/@KiunB/videos
The video linked in the post is from that YouTube channel.
Thom, if you haven’t yet, do read Norwegian Wood by Lars Mytting.
what if I had a try?
Reading about your weather, I realized this — Thom, you are Samuil, just with internet access.
Its not often that I find people who’ve lived more extremely than I have but Thom and Smauil have that down. I think. At least for cold environments. There is something cool about doing things the hard way that makes you appreciate them more, like doing a linux from scratch build, or rebuilding a retro system.
Bill Shooter of Bul,
You’re right about taking things for granted. Western cultures are guilty of taking energy for granted. It’s just there until it isn’t and people are caught off guard when it fails. This happens so quickly too. The massive power outages they experienced across texas in winter shows just how ill-prepared so many people are to face the elements and it cost some of them their lives. Areas around the great lakes like buffalo receives tons more snowfall, but at least they’re somewhat better prepared.
It’s a world away from me, but parts of Europe are suffering right now over tightened energy supplies and exorbitant costs caused by the war. As I understand it Nordic countries that have invested more in renewables and geothermals and may be better prepared for independence despite extreme temperatures. There’s probably a lesson in there for everyone.
Here in the north-east US the weather is a relatively “mild” 0-2C, but it can still get very uncomfortable if you don’t have heat. The power here has been mostly reliable…with brownouts in the summer due to high air conditioning loads. Our biggest risk for calamity has been hurricanes where power can stay off for a 7-10 day stretch. Our petrol stations often run out of fuel before & after hurricanes as well due to hording.
I was writing this actually thinking about the texas incident a couple years back, but this came across the news today…
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/02/weather/winter-storm-south-northeast-us/index.html
Once again many in texas are without power right now. They made the decision to run their own independent power grid as a matter of pride, but they’re suffering massive consequences when their grid goes offline with no backup.
Just a reminder…
https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-winter-storms-2021/2021/02/21/969912613/after-days-of-mass-outages-some-texas-residents-now-face-huge-electric-bills
Yikes, just think if you’re one of the “lucky” ones who’s power did not go offline and had an EV plugged in during one of these pricing surges. You could be looking at a $500-$1000 charging bill not to mention whatever else you are running.
I have to say I was surprised to see that same video show up in my youtube feed too. As well as other videos about the Samuli. Makes me wonder who’s pushing that content. A couple of things about the video left me wondering though. Anyone who heats with wood knows that you don’t just go out, cut down a tree and throw it in the fireplace. And most people don’t burn pine because it doesn’t produce much heat compared to hardwoods like oak, birch, etc. It also will foul up your chimney pretty quickly. I’m not saying the video is fake but something isn’t right about it.
If you want to read about the real deal, check out the stories and videos about Dick Proenneke:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke
He lived in the Alaskan wilderness till he was 83 and the winters where he was were quite brutal.
Sure -71° is not “normal” temperature there. It is a peak which happens few days a year (some nights actually), if ever. Anyway, -45° to -50° are extreme conditions too.
I have lived about 50 years in West Siberia, in Novosibirsk and last 4 of them outside of city boundaries. Everyday shock moving between lively megapolis (3-rd largest in Russia) to quiet “close to nature” village is something! But i had all that “tech stuff” on both sides. 🙂
This got pushed to my YT feed, funny that.
Anyway, it’s an interesting watch. Maybe it’s what’s required to escape the digital CBDC panopticon that our UN/WEF overlords have planned for us. For the greater good, of course, as always.