The solution to our cryopreservation problems.
As mentioned in other ideas we've been able to freeze, thaw and resuscitate hamsters (some of) who then go on to live full productive lives, for decades now.
But the techniques don't translate successfully (for any given value of 'successfully' .. that doesn't also involve a barbeque, or perhaps a casserole dish) to anything bigger.
Which is a bit of a problem for our dreams of galactic dominance really.
So what SkewCo would like to propose is the requisitioning of [Max's] intelligent mouse project to a new goal.
Now size is a limiter for intelligence so we start by first resuming the hamster cryo experiments to determine the largest size of rodent we can freeze, defrost and then resuscitate with an acceptable success rate so we know how big we can breed them.
We then breed mice for both intelligence and (at least a generalised) human appearance (we want them to handle tools etc .. and because of species vanity of course) with a far more direct & hands on approach than in the original mouse project, including bringing more modern gene splicing tech to bear to introduce helpful traits (like the antifreeze proteins found in arctic fish) rather than relying purely on a selective breeding program.
The ability to hibernate may be useful as a precursor to full cryo to help ameliorate the expected discomfort likely with both ends of the process, so I was thinking we might use Dormice as our starting species.
The Woolly dormouse or those populations of the Garden dormouse found in that species most northerly range are the ones most likely to have useful cold climate adaptions.
Maybe we can hybridise those two to start with.
Muscardinidae Sapiens, substituunt hominem usque iter gelida?
[Brought to you by Google translate ^]
Or Muscardinidae Algernonsiensis?
These proxies being much smaller than us will also help reduce some of the payload > fuel issues with interstellar travel .. if we can't (or won't) go ourselves maybe we can send someone in our place? .. even if we have to make them first.
..
Extrapolated from [a1's] link (its title, he was joking? but here we are) on [Cryogenic Tubes] with elements from [The intelligent Mouse Project] & [Project Tinkerbell].-- Skewed, May 12 2024 Mousternauts https://www.youtube...watch?v=toyJv1-CqIo [Skewed, May 12 2024] Evolution in a box Evolution_20in_20a_20box [Voice, May 12 2024] Somewhat 'prior art' to support this idea, if you count the hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional Mice who are running Deep Thoughts' supercomputer 'Earth' (à la Douglas Adams' HHGTTG), and surely they used this or similar technology to get around.-- Sgt Teacup, May 13 2024 Umm, no.
I think you misunderstood something,they won't look like mice and won't be hyper-intelligent or transdimensional, and they won't have FTL or probability drives like in HHGTTG either (which is why the idea.. we've got generation ships or we freeze people, that's it, gen ships are going to be really big and really expensive, and freezing doesn't work for us).
Let me try again.
Problem > our cryo technology (necessary for interstellar travel if you want the same guys that left to be the ones that arrive because FTL is contraindicated by physics, aka impossible) doesn't work for humans.
Observation > it does work for hamsters.
Further analysis > this appears to be a size issue.
[a1's] Proposal > send hamsters as cryonaughts instead of people.
Anticipated problem with [a1''s] solution > hamsters aren't very good at writing reports, most of them can't write their name, and are poorly qualified for job titles involving the words 'captain' and 'team leader'.
Hence this idea through a couple of further steps > breed tiny hamster sized people from mice to use.
The target is that they'll look like people, can talk, likely substantially under one foot if somewhat bigger than your average mouse, be as intelligent as reasonably possible (honestly if I had to guess equivalent IQ to a seven year old is probably the best (if not somewhat more than the best) that can be realistically expected for the likely size limits imposed by the requirements for successful cryo stasis on the breeding program), and will be bred specifically for the ease with which they can successfully and repeatedly be frozen thawed and resuscitated with the tech available to us (hence the suggested CRISPR insertion of the ability to produce antifreeze proteins found in other animals).
What we're looking for is a species that can use the cryo tech we have (and that's not us because we're too big) so we're aiming for a proxy species to use it in our place that we can send out into the galaxy using it.
They won't look like mice when we're done, they won't be mice when we're done.
They'll look like wingless pixies.
Aside from the word mice there is no relation to HHGTTG mice or any tech available in that universe.-- Skewed, May 13 2024 //hamsters aren't very good at writing reports, most of them can't write their name, and are poorly qualified for job title involving the words 'captain' and 'team leader'// Over-qualified, I'd say.-- DrBob, May 13 2024 //Over-qualified, I'd say//
Even if they are you can still only have one chief science officer, so the rest will just have to suck it up and settle for being the captain, a security officer or ships councillor or something.-- Skewed, May 13 2024 I like this. [+]-- doctorremulac3, Jun 07 2024 What this old thing? why thank you, but it's nothing really, just some things I found under the sofa and glued together .. did anyone catch the references to Flowers for algernon and Homo floresiensis? .. was particularly tickled with how shoving those two together left the end sounding like a latinised version of the word nonsense, giving me three for one, two references and a pun for free all in one word ;D-- Skewed, Jun 08 2024 If a mouse-sized motorcycle can go by making motorcycle noises then maybe a mouse-sized rocket can take off if a bunch of people say WOOOOOSSHHH!
Bun, but only if one of them is named Ralph.-- RayfordSteele, Jun 09 2024 MASA
"If you can pull this off there will be green cheese for generations to come."-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 09 2024 //only if one of them is named Ralph//
Runaway Ralph?-- Skewed, Jun 14 2024 random, halfbakery