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"[Science fiction] is the only kind of writing that allows you to look at the world we live in and change one piece at a time."
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The basic idea is simple; freeze the person so they can be revived later. Small insects, for example, have been frozen and then revived successfully. Human embryos are routinely frozen, thawed and used to create viable human fetuses. Children have been revived after immersion in very cold water for up to an hour. But what do you call a person who has been frozen?
Larry Niven offers some helpful etymological material in his use of the word from his 1971 novel A World Out of Time:
"Your newspapers called you people corpsicles," said the blond man. "I never understood what the tapes meant by that."
"It comes from Popsicle. Frozen sherbet." Corbell had used the word himself before he became one of them. One of the corpsicles, the frozen dead.
More than 100 people have been frozen since the first person placed in "cryonic suspension" 1967. Alcor provides you with some options; just have your head frozen for $50,000, or have your whole body frozen for $120,000.
Interestingly, Alcor does not really freeze your tissues:
And, best of all, the root word for "quiescently" means "in a restful state." Requiescat in pace, popsiculo.
Apparently, many science fiction writers were offered free services, and turned it down. Robert Heinlein said “How do I know it won’t interfere with my next stage?” Isaac Asimov said “I don’t think I should impose any kind of cost on the future, even the cost of just topping off my nitrogen.”
Not quite ready to be a popsicle? Try a few months in the hibernaculum, from 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.
Compare to Suspended Animation (Frigorific Process) from The Senator's Daughter (1879) by Edward Page Mitchell, cold-sleep from Robert Heinlein's Methuselah's Children (1941), stasis from Heinlein's Door Into Summer (1951) and the EverRest Cryotorium from Roger Zelazny's Flare (1992). Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
Brin's 1990 Novel Earth Still Full Of Predictions
'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'
Splendid View Of Eclipse From Orbit Visualized And Repurposed By Arthur C. Clarke
'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
Goldene - A Two-Dimensional Sheet Of Gold One Atom Thick
'Hasan always pitched a Gauzy - a one-molecule-layer tent, opaque, feather-light, and very tough.'
SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
NASA Wants Self-Driving Or Remote-Controlled Vehicles For Lunar Astronauts
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
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