X-Message-Number: 29814
From: "Chris Manning" <>
Subject: Re: suspension limit- an idea
Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2007 14:20:07 +1000

Perhaps I read too much science fiction but the following scenario just 
occurred to me.

Suppose a time comes in the distant future when it is looking unlikely that 
cryonics patients will ever be revived, either for medical/scientific 
reasons or for social/political ones. What should be done with the patients' 
bodies?

They could be sent into space. More specifically, they could be put in a 
specially built space craft which would be put in orbit around the sun, or 
sent into interstellar space. In any case, far enough away from the sun for 
the radiation level to be negligible (or maybe the craft could have 
shielding) and for the ambient temperature to be as low as or lower than 
that of liquid nitrogen. (It could of course be far lower. I believe the 
temperature of interstellar space is 3 K.) The craft would simply continue 
to orbit the sun, or travel through interstellar space, indefinitely, maybe 
for millions of years. That 30,000 year limit I mentioned might be wrong, or 
maybe it only applies at a high enough temperature.

Many things which we consider near-impossible events on a human time scale 
(such as a significant bolide strike) become less implausible on a time 
scale of thousands or millions of years. One such possibility may be 
discovery of the craft by intelligent alien beings who have perfected 
reversible cryonic suspension and are of a kindly disposition and they 
revive the bodies. (In writing this I am thinking of the sorts of things 
Carl Sagan used to say about the likely attitude of intelligent aliens, if 
we ever encounter any.)

Of course another likelihood that becomes significant over a long time span 
is that of a bolide striking the craft. 

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