What are some ideas for downsides to cryogenic preservation? I wanna make a character from the past that's been "frozen" so he could make it to the future. My idea was that the fluids the subject is submerged in having devolutionary/mutagenic effects on the popsicle. What yall think of it?
>>43970371
I'd imagine brain freeze would be one.
>>43970371
Transmetropolitan painted a good picture of the downsides. You're revived, your husband didn't make it, the guy who revived you is gross and wants to hit on you, otherwise nobody cares, you have no money or family or friends, and the future is a terrifying and utterly alien place that drives you to madness.
>>43970371
Well, there are plenty from the standpoint of just skipping that much time passing, but I'm guessing you want more physical symptoms.
You could possibly have them be more sensitive to high temperatures. Basically, their body has spent so long frozen that it acclimated somewhat, and feels sweltering in room temperatures. Not enough that they'd need a special suit like Mr. Freeze, but they'd definitely lean towards the low end of the thermostat.
>>43970371
The inability to resist using ice puns as often as possible
>>43970723
That's just cold, man.
>>43970371
>downsides to cryogenic preservation?
There's all the stuff that makes it infeasible IRL
But I'm guessing you want something more engaging than "due to a laundry list of complications, you died long before anyone tried to retrieve you".
>>43970371
This:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK3PWHxoT_E
>>43970767
Chill out, it's not that bad.
>>43970371
The character in question was one of the earliest subjects of the process which used a bio-organic compound for immersion/preservation. The downside to this is that it was able to permeate the skin and cell walls and integrate itself into his biology, but when he is woken up, it's found that it doesn't replicate properly with cell division, but instead creates a mutation akin to a supercharged version of sickle cell anemia. To be able to function properly and not suffer horrible pain followed by death, he has to wear a sort of pump that filters his blood, infuses it with a fresh supply of the compound and cycles it back through his body to help repair the improperly replicated cells. The upshot is that he the compound makes his body able to resist extreme temperature lows without any adverse effects, so no risk of frostbite or shit like that, and he wouldn't suffer penalties for adverse weather conditions.
The freezing process still leaves you conscious and aware of your surroundings, though your body is still fully frozen.
How? No fucking idea, but just imagine it.
Pretty much any kind of cellular damage or organ failure seems plausible. Living tissue can very easily be wrecked by ice crystals forming inside it.
The central nervous system especially seems like a prime candidate for being subtly fucked up by being frozen. Could lead to numbness, loss of fine motor control, paralysis or brain damage (which comes is a vast number of interesting varieties).
>>43970941
Okay. The pump wasn't intended for use in a body that keeps moving around. Now that he's mobile, it requires maintenance, and that costs money.
>>43970974
The whole point is stopping everything, including the subject's mind. Especially his mind, since otherwise it would degrade and die. Even if you could keep the mind working somehow, he'd still go nuts.
The best scenario I see is if you let the mind interact with the outside, like allowing it to chat with researchers and play games and such. Someone might take a camera on a walk through the outside world, so the subject still can interact with things and places to a limited degree.
>>43970457
>the guy who revived you is gross and wants to hit on you
AKA he's not a Chad, if he were a Chad she would just hop on in his dick and forget her beta provider husband anyway.
The major downside I'd say would be that you're dead. Leaving a perfectly preserved corpse is a slight benefit I suppose, but on balance I don't think it's worth all that much.
There where a lot of unexpected complications during cryo sleep as a result most of your organs and a good portion of your limbs are robotic, the nest egg that you had set up for yourself was spent keeping your body going, now you've woken up in the future penniless and alone.
P.S your organs are nearing their breaking point if you dont get some cash for a tune up your not going to last a week.
If your a real jerk have then wake up already in massive debt.
I really should have expected the "you'd end up a vegetable with failing organs and no money to fix it" response but somehow I just didn't.
>>43970371
It results in permanent degradation of some obscure but important part of the brain. You need surgery every five years or your grey matter turns into high pressure grey mush.Or this is a conspiracy to keep people with knowledge of what happened in important world events under control.
>>43970371
Language changes so fast, in only 200 years you'd have a time communicating and would stick out like a sore thumb. In 400 it would be nearly impossible to understand anyone.
>>43971035
This is the soft sci-fi "mind".
Yes, the freezer kept the brain from rotting, but for some reason the mix of chemicals let the thinking process continue for whatever reason.
So the person who comes out has something like claustrophobia and maybe becomes exceptionally irritable when cold.
Other idea for OP, the character was frozen due to a fatal illness. There is now a treatment that will keep you from dying of it indefinitely, but it cripples your rate of healing when not at near freezing temperatures. Thus the character has to be put in the freezer again if she/he takes a fall or gets beat up. Eventually you might get a Mr Freeze suit going to negate this and also take advantage of future tech.
>>43971344
read the second book in the Remnants series by K.A. Applegate. 80 of the last humans on earth go into stasis for 500 years. half of them are dead by the time they wake up, some have turned to mold, their is a flesh eating worm in a few of them. And one boy had the cryosystem work for him...but his mind never went to sleep. 500 years of being stuck in a box, and knowing you were stuck in a box, drove him insane.
dont read the series though. It starts to turn to shit half through and then implodes on itself in the last book.
This is one of the major plot points of some of Larry Niven's novels.
In the future, this oppressive regime has taken over Earth and are beginning their plans of colonizing other planets.
The first step is seeding planets with algae bombs, but AI isn't reliable enough to do the job yet, so they use Corpsicles.
Instead of killing prisoners, they mind wipe them. There are thousands of frozen people who hoped for cures to their terminal illnesses in the future, but things didn't play out that way.
Instead, the government takes the brains and extracts the RNA and injects it into the brains of mind-wiped criminals.
They offer you a job to drive a ship to the middle of no where (most likely without enough fuel to get back) to drop of algae pods. If you refuse, they mind wipe you again and try another personality.
Legally, you're the original mind wiped person (with no rights at all) and the new mind has even less rights.
There's always the fun of common illnesses. I mean were you innoculated for the Gator Flu of 2238? No, you were frozen in 2015. Welcome to a brand new set of hell. Also they probably haven't experienced what lingering bacteria are in your bloodstream, making you a sort of Thyphoid Mary (or Marty if dude).
>>43970371
You might need inoculation against diseases that have evolved alongside future people, even more possibly, future people will need inoculation against your diseases.
Your body has been in a state of motionlessness, either in some kind of padded chamber or liquid, your muscles have atrophied drastically from disuse. Every movement is difficult and you must undergo extensive physical therapy or wear some kind of exoskeleton while you recover.
The cryonic process used on you was still in its early phases and some of your major organs were damaged by ice crystals which formed as your were cooled, you may never fully recover/you may have to take future medicine at regular intervals to maintain your health.
You're senses haven't coped with any new information in years/decades/centuries, depending on how long you've been in suspended animation, you may suffer from extreme sensitivity to all forms of sensory input, like a prolonged migraine lasting for several days/weeks/ect.
Glitches or design flaws in your suspension system have resulted in some minor damage to your central nervous systems, you may experience hallucinations or lose portions of your memory, portions of your body may feel dull or be completely paralyzed. Space medicine can fix you but it will take time.
