What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder.
On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news.
Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉
I have not done a whole lot of really speculative, sci-fi questions as of late. So, let's change that.
In a certain subset of sci-fi, there's an idea of colonizing other worlds. But those worlds are far away, so the humans are put to sleep for the trip. The idea is that on the other end, the people will wake up without having aged. But...
What if cryogenic sleep doesn't work? What if the people on a colony ship from Earth would age normally during the journey (which could take a whole lot of years)?
You mean, go to sleep at age 20 and wake up expecting to still be 20 but finding out you’re actually 40? I’d be so angry.
ReplyDeleteI said "would", so I'm making the assumption that they would have figured out that cryo-sleep doesn't work before sending colony ships. But, again, I didn't specify...
DeleteWhat if the journey took 120 years or more? Would we wake up only to die in seconds?
ReplyDeleteWell, I would hope that they would figure things out before actually putting people in that sleep. How I wished that I had not aged as fast as I feel like I did but not thinking I would take steps like that to be young forever, or to put me to sleep if I had a illness that would kill me, till they found a cure.
ReplyDeleteWould they put people to sleep without having tested it out? Who knows?
DeleteI remember a story where aliens took over those in cryogenic sleep - it was rather creepy. Maybe that would happen instead.
ReplyDeleteOh, now that's an idea. Creepy.
DeleteI guess it would be if one is going away or toward the sun. On Neptune I would be 34,170 days old. Other words I would be 94 years old.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on and stay safe
What if is a great question! I'm trying to get better at exploring what ifs in my stories and not being afraid of writing scenes I might not end up using in the final draft!
ReplyDeleteYeah, sometimes it's good to explore different themes you might not actually use.
DeleteThe idea of colonizing other people is so old...
ReplyDeleteYup.
DeleteI guess they wouldn't get to the planet. But maybe they'd have kids who would live on the ship and colonize the planet.
ReplyDeleteSounds like it would fail if they were all old. If there were young children they would loose a lot of experience.
ReplyDeleteDepends on how old. If they knew the crew would age, they'd likely compensate somehow.
DeleteThis theme of either cryosleep or inter-generational ships has been explored in SF in many different ways. One assumes the technology would have been tested prior to the voyage but what if, for example, humans must flee the planet in a rush for some reason, and there is no time to finish testing this technology? To answer your question, one possible outcome, as I see it, is that it doesn't work at all, the people are able to escape their sleep pods, and you will have a generational ship with (probably) not enough food to feed everyone for the hundreds of years. They would either (hopefully) have a way to grow food and generate oxygen because the alternative would be awful. If they succeeded and got to a destination? Recommended reading for that, Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has been assuming that they wouldn't know the cryosleep didn't work, but I never specified that. In fact, when I thought of the question, I assumed that they would know before sending ships out. I was thinking about inter-generational ships. But, I find when I don't specify, the ideas and other questions generated are way more interesting than what I thought up.
DeleteI feel like if they knew, they'd be wasting time and resources.
ReplyDeletePerhaps.
DeleteI, too, feel that it would be a waste of time and resources if they knew.
ReplyDeleteInteresting what-if, Liz!
First it would be tested out entirely by these freaky weird tech billionaires who are afraid of death. When they get cancer and are only 40 they cryo freeze themselves to be awakened when a cure is found. After 20 to 100 of them die in the chamber, one death attributed to the sleeper being left unattended to because someone paid to watch over the experiment decided they were going to have sex with their girlfriend in the next room then watch a Netflix movie, then drank five shots and fell asleep for 24 hours.....scientists finally get it right, and just in time, as an asteroid is predicted to hit earth and destroy most of life, good life anyway, so rich people world over have lined up to cryo sleep away the next 100 years as they head off to a New Earth. After they are all on board various ships and headed out into space, a mistake is discovered. The asteroid isn't going to hit earth after all. Bummer!
ReplyDeleteOh, now that's a story. I don't think the protagonist should be one of the rich dudes, though. Maybe center it around a scientist who gets to live when the asteroid misses.
Deletelol
DeleteHmmm...I am taking it that they wake up and realize the journey is still way ahead of them and they will die on their way there. If they have kids maybe their grandkids will finally get to the destination.
ReplyDeleteThere are stories about generational ships.
Delete