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"Why does a creative person create? It's a type of compulsion. I like to explore new ideas."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Synthetic Babies | ||
| A means of gestating eggs to term is found. |
This is the first science-fictional reference (or any other reference, for that matter) to an artificial womb that I can find.
| At that time the human race was not only degenerating as individuals but disappearing as a species. It was then that our scientists began to talk about synthetic babies...
It was determined that the eggs of the sea urchin would grow into mature adults without the aid of the male; all that was necessary was to put them in water containing certain salts at a certain temperature. “These experiments finally ended in the discovery that the human ovary could be kept alive and functioning under certain conditions in a glass vessel. Such an ovary was able to develop and expel a perfect ovum every twenty-eight days. By a process similar to that used with the eggs of the sea urchin, these ova could not only be kept alive but could be developed into fully matured babies. At a certain point in their growth, they were taken out of the sterile glucose solution and respiration started with a pulmometer. As far as any tests were concerned, they were just like all the other babies.
 (Glass Vessel Ovary by Dr. David Keller) “A great many of these synthetic babies were made and allowed to grow up under ideal conditions. It was soon discovered that they could be kept free from all the diseases of childhood, they could grow into vigorous adults and be compared very favorably with the best of the race — provided they came from the ovary of a woman who was perfectly normal. That caused a lot of thinking and the thinking ended in the rapid collection of material and building of large numbers of special laboratories to grow these synthetic babies in. |
| Technovelgy from A Biological Experiment,
by David H. Keller. Published by Amazing Stories in 1928 Additional resources -
|
It was decided that this was the only way to birth perfect babies:
“These babies, grown under ideal conditions, the offspring of tested ovaries, have in a thousand years saved
our race from degeneration. In fact, everybody now is
perfect in practically every way. There is little sickness and people finally die painlessly of old age.
Compare to synthetic life from Synthetic (1930) by Charles Cloukey, Bokanovski's Process from Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley,
artificial womb from Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley,
procreative stump from Hellstrom's Hive (1972) by Frank Herbert and
uterine replicator from Shards of Honor (1986) by Lois McMaster Bujold.
The records show that the last child was born on the
western continent on July 4th, 3009. Since then the
race has been kept alive by the production of synthetic
babies. About one hundred and fifty thousand babies
are produced every year. They are all perfect in every
way because any who show defects are not allowed to
develop. The Government keeps them in nurseries till
they are called for. We saw how that happened in the
case of your sister and brother-in-law. After they
were forty years old, they decided to apply for a permit
to take a baby and they asked for a four-year-old child.
(Synthetic Babies by Dr. David Keller)
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from A Biological Experiment
More Ideas
and Technology by David H. Keller
Tech news articles related to A Biological Experiment
Tech news articles related to works by David H. Keller
Synthetic Babies-related
news articles:
- EctoLife Concept Video Artificial Womb For Baby Mass Production
- 'Pregnancy Humanoids' From China Replace Moms
| Living Human Neuron Biological Compute Rack |
| Biological War: A Scenario |
| What'll You Have? Extinct Animals Returned, Or Synthetic Eggshells? |
| Black Fungus Blocks Radiation |
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
