I think it depends on the sci-fi material being viewed. Some media portray suspended animation as going into a field which is isolated from time and therefore what seems like a second or what ever time increment for you ends up being a longer time increment for the observer. While in other media suspended animation is more akin to a long "sleep" were the bodies natural functions have slowed down. You still age but at a much reduced rate.

Cryogenics is just the most plausible thing we have to go on right now. Though the thought of freezing yourself like a popsicle to slow down or halt the natural ageing of your body seems crazy.

i thought... in most of the scifi i've seen... that there was a difference between suspended animation and cryogenically freezing people... such that suspended animation still allowed people to age.

(which, i know, defeats the purpose, but still... that's what i thought.)

besides, you can't put people in suspended animation for 20 000 years and have them still be, oh, say 20 years old at the end... they'd need to procreate.

Uh, why not? (Unless you're talking about the fact that it's not feasible today.)

yeah, i know, Albert... i thought of that too... but it seems to me that it would still be an issue....


besides, you can't put people in suspended animation for 20 000 years and have them still be, oh, say 20 years old at the end... they'd need to procreate.

i dunno... i can see it going horribly wrong so easily, like any stranded on a deserted island scenario - someone eventually gets shoved off on a raft (and if that happens once per generation... that's a lot of rafts...)




oh, and AD, it really sucks that America's so paranoid. sorry to hear that.

Sorry to hear that news AD. No going away party for you. On the other hand all those supplies for the party can go towards Par's going away party.

Alison don't you read any science fiction novels? These questions have been pondered ever since man has looked up into the sky and decided: "Damn those stars look a long way off! Well better make sure the kids have alot to do it's going to be a long trip!"

A common way to solve this generation ship problem is suspended animation. Though the systems could fail. It's not going to be an easy task to go 20,000 years on a ship but I believe we have to do it. The Earth is humanities cradle but one one day we must grow up and leave... Well if we don't destroy each other first.

You could always just use a hyper drive to get there in less than 6 months.

That's fucking lame, AD. We should go after those Al Qaeda fuckers.

(Also, Beck's news is lame as well.)

SDF-1

re intergenerational space vessels...

how would that work? I mean... yeah, a society would simply persist on the space ship... but can you imagine being one of those middle generations? say you're in year 680 of traveling, but you're totally aware that your entire purpose is to maintain a space ship and pass on offspring for their offspring's offspring's offspring... to eventually land on some unknown planet. i'd feel some real serious existential angst... and what if you suddenly decided you didn't want to have children?

and what if the generation that lands on the planet decides that their society's persisted happily on the space craft for long enough that they ought to just stay on the space craft... who needs this planet...

how big a space ship are we talking? wouldn't there be some SERIOUS inbreeding?