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"People ask me how I do research for my science fiction. The answer is, I never do any research. I just enjoy reading the stuff, and some of it sticks in my mind and fits into the stories."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Young-Forever | ||
| A very particular formula for human immortality, which solves the most serious attendant problem (population explosion). |
As those who read speculative fiction know, one of the scarier results of widespread anti-geriatric drugs or remedies is overpopulation. Niven finds a unique way around this particular problem in A World Out of Time.
| Earth was ruled by children, twenty billion children aged from eleven years to enormous. "It was young-forever that did it. The State had discovered an ideal form of young-forever," the old woman said. "Parents can see to it that their children stop growing older at an age just below - what is your word? When girls begin their cycle of blood - " "Puberty." "Just before puberty, they are stopped. They live nearly forever. There is no resultant rise in numbers, because these Children do not have children. The method was far better than the older method of staying young forever." |
| Technovelgy from A World Out of Time,
by Larry Niven. Published by Random House in 1976 Additional resources -
|
Naturally, Corbell (the protagonist of the novel), an old-fashioned 20th century human) would like to have the old method of staying young forever.
In the future society, it turned out the Girls and Boys had relatively little in common, and never found a reason to come together.
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More Ideas
and Technology from A World Out of Time
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and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to A World Out of Time
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
Young-Forever-related
news articles:
- Yoda - The World's Oldest Mouse Update
- Klotho Anti-Aging Gene
| Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI |
| Brainoware Reservoir Computation Of Biological Neural Networks |
| Forward CarePod The AI Doctor's Office |
| Octopus Suckers Inspire Transdermal Patches |
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'Provision had been made to meet the terrific cold which we knew would be encountered the moment we had passed beyond the atmosphere.'
'You are who we say you are, Dr. Dakin,' Turner said.'
'It's area, and its consequent light-gathering capacity, was many times greater than any rigid mirror...'
'Tell me your torments,' the Padre said, in an elderly voice marked with compassion.
'...a slender-legged tripod surmounted by a spherical body no larger than a football.'
'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
'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?'
'...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.'
