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"At its best, SF is the medium in which our miserable certainty that tomorrow will be different from today in ways we can't predict, can be transmuted to a sense of excitement and anticipation, occasionally evolving into awe."
- John Brunner
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| 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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Tech news articles related to A Biological Experiment
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Synthetic Babies-related
news articles:
- EctoLife Concept Video Artificial Womb For Baby Mass Production
| Lunar Biorepository Proposed For Cryo-Preservation Of Earth Species |
| Let's Make Slaver Sunflowers! Engineering Plants To Reflect Light |
| Machete-Wielding Philodendron Isn't Going To Take It Anymore |
| Tsunami Forecasts Improved By Ionosphere Signals |
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'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
'We had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect.'
'Detailed plans for the construction of the Gundstetter-Halone warp drive were flowing.'
'Do not waste your priceless company on the unappreciative folds of a sleep pod...'
'...so we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
