4 ms·

This is assuming that you have to be conscious during the trip. Antimatter storage is a lot more scifi than human hibernation.

skissane 2y ago
The problem with human hibernation is that it is almost impossible to ethically test. What medical ethics board is going to approve a research project "put healthy experimental subject in coma for 5 years, observe what they are like when they wake up?" Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_sleep_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_sleep_therapy and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelmsford_Royal_Commission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelmsford_Royal_Commission I think this is an example of a technology which, if it is ever developed, is most likely to be developed by some kind of totalitarian regime which has no ethical qualms about human experimentation.
- zardo 2y ago
  That's not really how hibernation works in mammals, they have to raise their body temperature and come out of hibernation every couple weeks, the leading theory is this is to (ironically) catch up on sleep. Inducing torpor would have major medical uses in surgical and emergency medicine, it's not just useful for passing the time.
- jaybrendansmith 2y ago
  Heinlein story time! Door into Summer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Door_into_Summer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Door_into_Summer Protagonist signs their life away for a 'cold sleep' that will allow them to wake up many years later. Tech is iffy. They do it because they are desperate, and the interest gained over time should make them rich (doesn't happen of course).
- sungho_ 2y ago
  People with incurable diseases or just strange individuals can volunteer for such experiments. After that, if they write about their experiences, it could be featured first on Hacker News.
Retric 2y ago
I think the opposite is true. We do know how to inefficiently create and store antimatter, we don’t have any idea how to cause human hibernation. To me getting two dozen of orders of magnitude better at something is clearly hard, but that still beats trying to do something we don’t have a clue how to start. For human hibernation step 1 is probably serious genetic engineering and there’s going to be other steps.
- llm_trw 2y ago
  Inefficiently in the context of antimatter storage makes every industrial accident since the dawn of time combined seem like a kid spilling their juice.
  - Retric 2y ago
    The inefficiencies around storage are a practical not a safety concern. Once cooled we can contain the particles just fine the issue is only 0.1% get trapped and the apparatus is vastly larger than the mass of antimatter stored.
    - llm_trw 2y ago
      To put that into number that people can understand, to accelerate 1kg of matter to 94% the speed of light you need 1kg of antimatter. That is the equivalent of the tsar bomb. So the storage facility would need to withstand that type of explosion 1000 times over for every kg of antimatter it produces. World ending doesn't begin to describe what that looks like.
      - Retric 2y ago
        That assumes the energy is released in a fraction of a second which would preclude cooling the antimatter. Do the same thing over a year in many different devices and you’re basically dealing with a normal nuclear power plant’s output.
        2y ago
deleted 2y ago
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skissane 2y ago

The problem with human hibernation is that it is almost impossible to ethically test. What medical ethics board is going to approve a research project "put healthy experimental subject in coma for 5 years, observe what they are like when they wake up?" Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_sleep_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_sleep_therapy and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelmsford_Royal_Commission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelmsford_Royal_Commission I think this is an example of a technology which, if it is ever developed, is most likely to be developed by some kind of totalitarian regime which has no ethical qualms about human experimentation.

zardo 2y ago
That's not really how hibernation works in mammals, they have to raise their body temperature and come out of hibernation every couple weeks, the leading theory is this is to (ironically) catch up on sleep. Inducing torpor would have major medical uses in surgical and emergency medicine, it's not just useful for passing the time.
jaybrendansmith 2y ago
Heinlein story time! Door into Summer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Door_into_Summer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Door_into_Summer Protagonist signs their life away for a 'cold sleep' that will allow them to wake up many years later. Tech is iffy. They do it because they are desperate, and the interest gained over time should make them rich (doesn't happen of course).
sungho_ 2y ago
People with incurable diseases or just strange individuals can volunteer for such experiments. After that, if they write about their experiences, it could be featured first on Hacker News.

Retric 2y ago

I think the opposite is true. We do know how to inefficiently create and store antimatter, we don’t have any idea how to cause human hibernation. To me getting two dozen of orders of magnitude better at something is clearly hard, but that still beats trying to do something we don’t have a clue how to start. For human hibernation step 1 is probably serious genetic engineering and there’s going to be other steps.

llm_trw 2y ago
Inefficiently in the context of antimatter storage makes every industrial accident since the dawn of time combined seem like a kid spilling their juice.
- Retric 2y ago
  The inefficiencies around storage are a practical not a safety concern. Once cooled we can contain the particles just fine the issue is only 0.1% get trapped and the apparatus is vastly larger than the mass of antimatter stored.
  - llm_trw 2y ago
    To put that into number that people can understand, to accelerate 1kg of matter to 94% the speed of light you need 1kg of antimatter. That is the equivalent of the tsar bomb. So the storage facility would need to withstand that type of explosion 1000 times over for every kg of antimatter it produces. World ending doesn't begin to describe what that looks like.
    - Retric 2y ago
      That assumes the energy is released in a fraction of a second which would preclude cooling the antimatter. Do the same thing over a year in many different devices and you’re basically dealing with a normal nuclear power plant’s output.
      - 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

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