Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"What television does is rent us friends and relatives who are quite satisfactory. This is quite something, to rent artificial friends and relatives right inside the house."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Corpsicle | ||
| Cryogenically frozen person who could (hopefully) be revived later. |
The basic idea is simple; freeze the person so they can be revived later. Small insects, for example, have been frozen and then revived successfully. Human embryos are routinely frozen, thawed and used to create viable human fetuses. Children have been revived after immersion in very cold water for up to an hour. But what do you call a person who has been frozen?
| No corpsicle has yet been thawed and returned to life, and there's no firm estimate of when one will be. |
| From The Age of The Pussyfoot,
by Frederik Pohl. Published by Ballantine in 1966 Additional resources -
|
Larry Niven offers some helpful etymological material in his use of the word from his 1971 novel A World Out of Time:
"Your newspapers called you people corpsicles," said the blond man. "I never understood what the tapes meant by that."
"It comes from Popsicle. Frozen sherbet." Corbell had used the word himself before he became one of them. One of the corpsicles, the frozen dead.
More than 100 people have been frozen since the first person placed in "cryonic suspension" 1967. Alcor provides you with some options; just have your head frozen for $50,000, or have your whole body frozen for $120,000.
Interestingly, Alcor does not really freeze your tissues:
And, best of all, the root word for "quiescently" means "in a restful state." Requiescat in pace, popsiculo.
Apparently, many science fiction writers were offered free services, and turned it down. Robert Heinlein said “How do I know it won’t interfere with my next stage?” Isaac Asimov said “I don’t think I should impose any kind of cost on the future, even the cost of just topping off my nitrogen.”
Not quite ready to be a popsicle? Try a few months in the hibernaculum, from 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.
See also the frigorific process from the 1879 story The Senator's Daughter, by Edward Page Mitchell.
And there was this frozen thing.
Alcor's most advanced procedure is called "vitrification". In vitrification more than 60% of the water inside cells is replaced by a mixture of cryoprotectant (antifreeze) compounds so that tissue does not freeze (or freezes negligibly) during cooling. Instead, below a temperature of -130 degrees Celsius, the tissue becomes a rigid glass with no ice crystal damage. Chemistry is stopped, and tissue is stable essentially indefinitely.
The reason I find this interesting is because a popsicle is not really frozen either; it is a "quiescently frozen treat" according to the labels. Popsicle makers use stabilizing ingredients to keep the flavoring agent, color, sugar and other elements from separating from the ice as the water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Age of The Pussyfoot
More Ideas
and Technology by Frederik Pohl
Tech news articles related to The Age of The Pussyfoot
Tech news articles related to works by Frederik Pohl
Corpsicle-related
news articles:
- Terasem Conference On Law Of Transhuman Persons
- Dynasty Trusts Lively Topic For Corpsicles
- Owada's Freezing Method Vs. Carbonite
- KrioRus Brain Freeze Technology
- Cryonics Movement Loses Founder (Temporarily)
| BrainEx Restores Some Activity To Severed Pig Head |
| Purdue Pharma Ready To Profit From OxyContin Use Or Addiction Recovery |
| Organaut! Russians 3D Print Living Tissue In Space |
| MIT Scientists Create 'Peek-a-Boo Prober' From Jetsons |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'... they placed the brain in a special solution, having all the properties of Nursing the brain cells.'
'... Ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.'
'Twin robotic arms with gleaming three-foot sword blades unfolded from the forward hydraulic assemblies...'
'He made an adjustment, pointed the tube at the wall beside Etzwane, and projected a cone of light.'
'A metal... light as cork and stronger than steel...'
'Ken lay full-length in the padded body compartment, his feet resting on the controlling bars of the directional planes, hands on the torpoon's engine levers.'
'... little machines, that went from plant to plant... cutting off the ripe fruit.'
'Recharge the batteries... in almost every town and village...'
'...a tiny, rocket-powered projectile, drove towards the mysterious bulk. It hit, exploding into a cloud of incandescent vapour.'
'The flycycles were miracles of compact design.'
