1. According to that article, books, ability to write etc. would be out of the question. That's the part of the problem that we are discussing here - that the lack of stimuli (basically absolute boredom) can be torturous. Your argument seems to be like 'I would be OK with them torturing me if they just did not do things I don't like to me'.

2. I think that you would be really surprised how cruel the lack of social contact can be. We are wired to be social but it's hard to even imagine spending prolonged time without talking to others etc. because most of us have never experienced it.

Someone who has never experienced hunger could think that they would be OK without food... but I am pretty sure they would change their mind after three days without a bite.

Understandable - but from what I understand, your givens aren't typically given.

What's the longest time you've actually gone in your life without seeing another human?

I've done 10-12 days a few times, and routinely do ~5 days.

You need to experience it for yourself before you make such bold claims. It's a very intense experience.

9-10 days without Internet a couple times. A week or so at a time with internet, routinely, most of the time for a few years. 6 months where the only person was seen about as much as a prison guard at pelican bay would be, and another year which was quite close to that, and where I effectively couldn't leave.

I agree it's intense, but not exclusively bad. And I'm pretty sure I'd prefer it by far to being in prison with contact with inmates and COs.

There are a lot of people who have spent weeks/months solo in pursuits like sailing. It clearly isn't just the isolation of solitary which is a problem; it's probably more to do with 1) the type of people sent there and 2) the lack of control over one's own destiny. People who require "social interaction", put in a new/stressful situation against their will, etc. are a lot more likely to suffer from it than people who aren't particularly social and are solitary voluntarily and in a non-stressful setting.

Let me re-phrase that.

What's the longest time you've ever gone without seeing or talking to another human where you can't easily do so? i.e. you can just walk outside and see one, or pickup the phone, or chat on internet.

I do remote hiking trips where it would take me 5 days to see another person even if I wanted to.

Remove yourself from the world, completely.

Right, 9-10 day backcountry trips which I've done a couple times (although not in the past 8 years). Although probably within 1-2 days of people the whole time. And, I'd certainly take a satphone with me, at least emergency beacon, if I did it today (yay, technology).

(This also becomes a philosophical/psychological question: is it more holy to resist sin when surrounded by temptation, or when in a pure environment? Is it harder to avoid talking to people if you know you just have to pick up a phone to do so, or when it's a serious production?)

There's a couple of competing things at play here. You're not seeing people on these trips, but you are being stimulated by the experience you're having.

That being said, some people are hardier to the idea of being in solitude, though it does usually take some training to get there. However most people aren't that hardy, especially in the extreme case of solitary confinement.

You think that, until you've spent a few months, perhaps only a week, in solitary confinement.

I spent 6 continuous months on Sealand with one other guy (who I avoided as much as I possibly could, saw him about 3 minutes a day if I didn't correctly time my hallway trip to avoid running into him).

Lots of space, and the Internet, though.

> with one other guy

so not solitary

> Lots of space, and the Internet, though

and not (physically or mentally) confinement either

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The only way in which you are an outlier is that you have an inflated sense of your own awesomeness.

rdl may just be unusual in this sense. As for 3min/day, even solitary prisoners have that minimal contact - bare interaction with guards when let out for exercise, or when the meals come.

Yeah, it's not sensory deprivation, which seems reliably able to drive people crazy in hours to a day. It's just a really crappy form of prison (combined with some additional psychological trauma of being solitary). If you're there voluntarily, even if without the ability to easily leave, it's nowhere near as bad.

I imagine political prisoners do comparatively well in solitary, too, or the extremely religious, etc. I know from the other side, religiosity and belief in one's cause are the main ways to successfully resist torture or other psychological hardship.

I've spent few weeks without talking to anyone. I had to go out shopping every two weeks or so but I live in country where even 'hello' at the checkout is optional.

I kinda forgot a bit how to talk but apart from that it was pure bliss. I had lots of games and books though.

And that would be anti-social behavior by itself, right? :-)

Other people think that inmates are anti-social people. But were they always anti-social? Or just some of the time? And how is anti-social measured? Do extroverts make less anti-social people? And if so, does it matter that many inmates are also extroverts?

Bureaucracy seems to be incredibly painful in the Justice system. Decisions get made. To reverse those decisions it becomes a problem in itself. To err is human? To persist on it is stupid. Or is it just a bureaucratic mare?