6.03.2025

There's a device in this science fiction series I'm reading that involves people being put into long periods of hybernation with instructions to only be woken up if something important happens. It's not a main feature of the story but it's a useful mechanism for the author, allowing him to re-use the same handful of characters across centuries and eons of epic storytelling. Also a common gimmick in space stories in general. All of this rests on an assumption that, if we get ourselves to the point where we're traveling between planets and stars and what-have-you-nots out there in yon cosmos, we'll need to put ourselves to sleep using cryonics to weather the voyage. There are other alternatives, of course - warp speed, generational ships, worm hole portals or whatever - but if we go with the assumption that there's a speed limit and acknowledge our own limitations in approaching it with the tech we have and the way we understand physics, it seems like a reasonable enough practice. Like all cool spec-fic ideas it makes you think about how you would use the tech yourself. Probably a pretty appealing concept to a lot of us these days. The luxury to go to sleep somewhere protected and wake up in a future when technology and civilization have improved sounds pretty good. Also requires a bold leap of faith. I already feel like I've been sitting things out for the last few months and to just nap it off and assume I won't wake up in one of those Matrix pods being fed liquefied human remains by a robotic fly doesn't seem like a great bet.