cryogenics, corpsicles and mind uploads: a discussion "reincarnation" in Science Fiction

[Ray McCarthy]

Fairly strange, but illustrates the different sort of population problems that arise as people get better off

Denmark is fighting its low birth rate in the creepiest way possible

In 2014, the national fertility rate was at 1.69, a small increase on 2013 and the first time such an increase had occurred since 2010.
The average age of first-time parents in Denmark was 29.1 years in 2014, five years older than the average age in 1970. [24]

 

[ACE977]

Next, there are several favourite tropes of science fiction, namely mind transfers, various forms of immortality through genetic modification or other medical procedures, and cryonic suspension.

Hello !

I am a newbie and I still working on my book.
I thought that cryonic suspension is just a particular case of "suspended animation", you know - used for interstellar voyages..
I am wrong or not ?

 

[Lew Rockwell Fan]

Hello !

I am a newbie and I still working on my book.
I thought that cryonic suspension is just a particular case of "suspended animation", you know - used for interstellar voyages..
I am wrong or not ?

You're more or less right. SF "suspended animation" varies as to details and is often vague. Certainly sometimes what's described comes under the heading "cryonic". Usually in SF the methods of reversing it are already worked out.

But real world CS, done in the here and now, is a set of procedures ultimately leaving the recently dead person frozen, and ideally vitrified, at liquid nitrogen temperature, in the expectation that future tech will be able to reverse the freezing damage along with the cause of death and aging. The best book to read on it is actually a book that isn't even focused on it - "Engines of Creation" by Eric Drexler. Engines is the seminal book on nanotechnology and Drexler's ideas have ultimately set the agenda driving a huge fraction of the research in chemistry. IMO it is one of the 3 or 4 most important books of the last century.

 

[RX-79G]

Hello !

I am a newbie and I still working on my book.
I thought that cryonic suspension is just a particular case of "suspended animation", you know - used for interstellar voyages..
I am wrong or not ?

In addition to what LRF said, suspension is a time machine allowing mortal people to travel into a future where they can use advances to become immortal. With the rise of right to die laws, we will eventually see living people having themselves frozen in the hopes of emerging with more of their minds intact or to a world that they approve of.


Another type of immortality that I don't know if anyone has ever written about is packing more living into a normal lifespan by increasing the "clock speed" of the brain through computer augmentation. A human living weeks per every hour of normal time could experience 20,000 years of living in the space of 60 years.

 

[HareBrain]

A human living weeks per every hour of normal time could experience 20,000 years of living in the space of 60 years.

Would that translate to extra physical activity too, or just mental? I'd imagine the latter, because you'd be limited by the speed of nerve impulses and muscle movement -- in which case it would be like living a very long time in a body that could only respond horribly slowly. (Which would make a good subject for a short story, but I don't think I'd like to live it.)

 

[RX-79G]

Would that translate to extra physical activity too, or just mental? I'd imagine the latter, because you'd be limited by the speed of nerve impulses and muscle movement -- in which case it would be like living a very long time in a body that could only respond horribly slowly. (Which would make a good subject for a short story, but I don't think I'd like to live it.)

Such a being may have the capacity to simultaneously live in a fast mental space while physically enjoying a "normal" physical pace. We already do this to an extent, going through the motions of daily life with little conscious input while we think or fantasize. Then every few seconds or minutes we take a more deliberate interest in where the body has carried us and make a decision or appreciate a sight.

A grossly extended consciousness would have more capacity to turn up the fidelity of ordinary living while doing much, much more in the mental space. The most sped-up portion does not need to feel frustration at the slowness of the physical being any more than we have to grow frustrated at the slow pace of getting old or observing a plant grow.

 

[HareBrain]

I take your point. But there are times when we want to throw ourselves into the purely physical, during sport, or sometimes even just eating. (Or, erm, the obvious.) I think it's very beneficial for our mental health to do so. Still, I guess such computer enhancement would be capable of adjusting for that. And it does solve the problem of increased longevity causing overpopulation.