latest link next link
There is a reason why club 3 technologies together in that not only wish death is achieved, something new is made that removes the infinite boredom that may result. The two technologies beyond amrit for infinite life, within current physics and hence more than sci-fi (tech fi in my lingo) are,
1. Wish death or amrit, must be first to utilize later technologies
2. Hibernation/Astivation to travel the solar system using realistic technologies
3. Brain download for light-speed travel without time elapse
#3 can be way down in the future with MIT technology to greatly expand the folded brain. It is #2 that requires research, continuing now, to perfect. We understand cold hibernation some. It became evolution engineered to allow animals to migrate towards the poles. The two poles are distant on the globe, hence the fauna that developed in the sea and on land are distinct. The north pole has polar bears and walruses for example. The south pole has penguins and eels for example. Evolution had to independently develop the mechanism for hibernation and tissue preservation on freezing.
The first overarching statement I make is that all cold hibernations examined so far, as well as extensions imaginable, will never be applicable to warm-blooded creatures like us. Stating this, I deny every sci-fi so far. The point is the regeneration of blood after freezing is not possible on thawing. Not only do I condemn sci-fi but all post-death cryopreservation which preserve with freezing.
Cryopreservation is not just sci-fi research, but immensely important in organ donation. It is estimated that only 20% of people get donations usefully while they wait in queues and die not only because of donor shortages but transportation losses. And here I claim that cryopreservation is not possible!
So is it the end? Not really because there exist warm-blooded animals that hibernate! The process has a different name - astivation. The best model is the Madagascar lemur! The evolutionary reason is the same - food sources in the predictable part of the year dry up. Only tolerated by animals that can genetically activate it! How does it work and who researches it?
In it, the body temperature drops, say 10fahr, the animal becomes lethargic, and heartbeat drops from the usual 180 to single digits. Unlike cold hibernation, the animal quickly recovers within a week, restores heart and breathing, and then rapidly drops to a torpor state again. Astivation itself lasts several months with a weekly brief waking up.
I think the wake-up episodes allow the body machine to be kept up, even while the lemur sleeps. I can imagine humans in the situation of multi-annual sleep with their bodies being woken up, and even monthly restore to expel wastes and restore hyper-nutrition food (lemur solves food issue by gorging when food is plentiful and storing energy as fat in their enlarging tail, thickens 40%, lemurs called fat-tailed in local lingo).
video: Doing research on lemur
No comments:
Post a Comment