[monkeyfun]

Haha, i totally feel that. Maybe people will have little personal balloons for emergencies like that :p

At the same time, do consider how you already count on conventionally supported structures like bridges, buildings, tunnels, etc. not to have any defects or design flaws. Or once-in-100-years storms or earthquakes.

This magnifies further if you've ever flown on a plane or sailed on a ship. It only takes the right series of failures to be plummeting to the bottom. Now imagine people who spend months or years counting on technology and redundancy to keep them alive in space, and might expect to do so indefinitely.

Exposure therapy, baby!

[kaashif]

All I know is if I sail on a ship and something goes wrong, I don't fall dozens of kilometers through clouds of sulphuric acid to my death.

Not on the ships I've been going on, anyway.