system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: When I'm several stories up and I look at the ground why do I feel like is want to jump knowing it would kill me?

If I'm at the top floor of a building why do I feel like I "need" to jump?
gpt
There is a theory that L’appel du vide (call of the void) is a result of our base brain still recalling a time when we lived in trees and, like monkeys, would jump out into open space without hesitation to get to another tree or escape an obnoxious proto-human who was hassling us.

That may actually be partially the reason for fear of heights. There can be a painful cognitive dissonance between a curious urge to jump to freedom, and knowing it will kill you.