One year after the first confinement in France, 15 women and men aged 27 to 50 will live from Sunday and for 40 days in a cave in Ariège, in the southwest, without any notion of time, an experiment with a scientific aim .
The goal? Studying human adaptation capacities to the loss of spatio-temporal landmarks, a question raised in particular with the health crisis, explains Christian Clot, the head of mission.
“In an extreme context, with a new way of life, we obviously did not know well, as a group, how to respond to the impacts caused by these changes”, made the observation, in September 2020, this explorer and founder of Human Adaptation Institute.
This is how the Deep Time project will be born, which begins Sunday at 8 p.m.
Without a watch, telephone or natural light, these seven men, seven women and Mr. Clot himself, will also have to get used to the 12 degrees and 95% humidity of the Lombrives cave, generate their electricity by a pedal boat system. , and draw the water they need from 45 meters deep.
They will be equipped with sensors allowing a dozen scientists to follow them from the surface.
“This experience is a world first,” said Professor Étienne Koechlin, director of the cognitive and computational neurosciences laboratory at the École normale supérieure (ENS).
“Until now, all missions of this type had for objective the study of the physiological rhythms of the body, but never the impact of this type of temporal rupture on the cognitive and emotional functions of the human being”, says- he.
The 14 volunteers – jeweler, anesthetist, security guard or rope access technician – from all over France, participate in the project on a voluntary basis, without any compensation.
Arnaud Burel, a 29-year-old biologist, agreed to participate in the mission “to taste this timeless life, impossible outside with our computers and mobile phones which constantly remind us of our appointments and obligations”, he said.
In the cave, one of the largest in Europe, “three separate living spaces have been fitted out: one for sleeping, one for living and one for carrying out studies on the topography of the place, especially the flora and fauna” , explains Franco-Swiss explorer Christian Clot to the press.
Four tons of material were sent so that the 15 volunteers could live independently, he said.
In total, Deep Time required 1.2 million euros in funding: private and public partners, but especially the Human Adaptation Institute.