I remember this article… He went for a hike and didn’t tell his roommates when he would be back. He didn’t answer their calls (I’m assuming he needed some time alone), and was gone for more than 24 hours so they reported him missing. He just wanted some time away from his roommates and they put him the the national news.
Because of capitlaism everything has to be ground into the finest point with the sharpest edge to make money. So the ability to talk to anyone on earth whenever you want has been reduced from a marvel scifi authors used to dream about to its current state were is an annoyance used to make your life worse whenever possible. It would be trivially easy to make like just a little bit better but that isn’t good for the gdp so people in risk of death can only assume the system is out to harm them
If you live in a supported country, (but only US have the automatic screening feature) I suggest getting a Pixel phone and use the call screening features.
I’m currently using a Samsung phone and it has a similar feature but the screening can only be done manually and Bixby’s voice is miles behind Google Assistant’s.
I was joking actually, like totally joking… Saying the hiker or anyone should have had local search and rescue team in his contacts so when lost caller ID would identify them so he would answer and not ignore the call because of unknown number… Was a joke… But never mind 🤦
The telephone network is practically useless because we don’t have any authentication to it anymore.
When the phone company had to do something to physically connect a wire to a building, it was sufficient. But that I can download any number of apps that lets me war dial an entire continent pretending to be just anyone? Yeah the phone network isn’t secure enough for the average user.
It never really was secure. You could always set the Caller ID on an outgoing PRI trunk to whatever you wanted with any of the phone systems in the last half century. It isn’t validated.
You should have GPS without any service at all. You might need data for the map to load, depends on the app. If you’re lucky and the app automatically cached it when you had signal, or you manually downloaded the offline map, then you could navigate home in airplane mode.
All of this is moot because I think I remember reading the rest of this story. The hiker wasn’t really lost, they simply went on a hike without telling anyone, and ignored calls during that time because they were trying to unplug.
I’m not going to listen to your goddamn voicemail, who the hell even uses that anymore. Send a text if you want to leave info or call me later when I’m around to pick up
He was probably afraid to call for help due to the insane prices the search and rescue folks charge. Might have wanted to wait another day or two to be sure he was really lost before calling for help.
It’s a U.S. thing! Yay! You can buy insurance for it if you do a lot of backpacking but that’s rare. I believe it’s in the five figures for a rescue. But apparently occasionally it can be free if you’re lucky enough to get rescued by the one agency whose name I forget.
A childhood friend of mine had to sign a waiver in New Zealand because her and her team were climbing down some canyon notoriously hard to get to except by rescue helicopter. She got stuck, and the rest of the team went to go get help. She paid $58,000 in 1990s money for the rescue. So it’s not just the US.
It depends on the state and payment is more likely required if local officials deem you negligent or if youʼre a part of a common pattern in that location (e.g. Floridians visiting southern Utah every winter and getting themselves stuck in cliffs).
I remember reading about this. He was actually lost, in that he strayed from his trail and didn’t immediately know how to return.
Rescuers were alerted because a family member had reported him missing after he didn’t arrive home on time.
As the story goes, to the best of my recollection, the “lost” individual went for a hike and said they would be back before sundown. When they got lost, they obviously missed that deadline. They were biding their time in the forest until daybreak to try to find the trail to get back because it was too dark to look for it. So while he was “lost” it was mainly because the sun had gone down. He didn’t feel like he was in any danger, and wasn’t at any risk of immediately being harmed or killed; AFAIK they were reasonably familiar with that forest and they were more than capable of surviving in those conditions; so he had no motivation to seek help.
I get that he didn’t feel like he needed help. But he told his family he’d be back before sundown so wouldn’t the thought to call or even text your family to let them know you’re ok cross your mind? That’s the part that seems strange to me.
What’s more likely is that in his panic he wasn’t thinking quite straight. It’s very common for people to make decisions that seem silly in retrospect in situations like this.
Something similar, if less life threatening, happened to me. My car had been stollen a while back and I avoided the random call from an area code 50+ miles away. Turns out it had been the cops from that area telling my they found my (stripped) vehicle. Impound lot ended up getting the car AND overnight parking fees. Absolute racket.
I wish people texted after failing to call me. I don’t answer calls from unknown numbers either but if you know me then text me so I know it’s not a spam number
I agree, but I still have this idea that it’s rude to text people unless you have gotten permission first. I think it’s a relic from the 2000s-2010s when not everyone’s phone had texting and if you did text them they could get charged by their phone provider. Obviously nowadays that’s much less of a concern, but still feels like a social grey area for some reason
It is completely opposite to that in my circles. It would be weird to call people without texting them first. In fact, one of my best friends texted me to ask if he could call me.
That definitely makes sense too, particularly when making new friends in my age group. I guess it’s just when contacting people for business vs social communications? I’m not sure
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