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"I suspect that religion is a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species. And that's one of the interesting things about contact with other intelligences: we could see what role, if any, religion plays in their development."
- Arthur C. Clarke
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| Stasis (Cold Sleep, Hibernation) | ||
| Hibernation for human beings, lasting for many years. |
Heinlein discusses cold sleep (sometimes called cold rest) in several of his earlier novels. This novel provides some details in the process.
| It had been known since the '30s that the human body could be chilled until it slowed down to almost nothing. But it had been a laboratory trick, or a last-resort therapy, until the Six Weeks War. I'll say this for military research: if money and men can do it, it gets results. Print another billion, hire another thousand scientists and engineers, then in some incredible, left-handed, inefficient fashion the answers come up. Stasis, cold sleep, hibernation, hypothermia, reduced metabolism, call it what you will - the logistics-medicine research teams had found a way to stack people like cordwood and use them when needed. First you drug the subject, then hypnotize him, then cool him down and hold him precisely at four degrees centigrade; that is to say, at the maximum density of water with no ice crystals. |
| Technovelgy from The Door Into Summer,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1956 Additional resources -
|
Heinlein goes on to describe the various methods for waking people up from stasis:
Stasis, or cold rest, is to be distinguished from cryonic storage. As a corpsicle, you are frozen solid - and able to take centuries if necessary.
If you need him in a hurry he can be brought up by diathermy and posthypnotic command in ten minutes ... but such speed tends to age the tissues and may make him a little stupid from then on. If you aren't in a hurry two hours minimum is better...
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Door Into Summer
More Ideas
and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to The Door Into Summer
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
Stasis (Cold Sleep, Hibernation)-related
news articles:
- Cryogenic Suspension For Humans In Two Years
| Octopus Suckers Inspire Transdermal Patches |
| 'Droplet' Battery Microscale Power Pack |
| Who Needs Asimov's 'Proteus' When You Can Have Pangolins? |
| Self-Powered Piezoelectric Nanotattoos |
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