May 31, 2023

Scientists are working on the use of ultrasound to induce a state of "torpor" — which may some day work on humans.

We are informed as if it's good news — "It’s something humans have long fantasized about for ourselves" — in "Ultrasound Pulses to Brain Send Mice Into a Hibernation-Like State/Experiments offer an intriguing hint at technology that could induce torpor in humans in the future" (NYT). 

We're reminded that "Science fiction writers tend to imagine a mysterious technology that keeps humans in stasis, able to survive centuries of silence before emerging into a new life."

No mention of the potential of ultrasound as a weapon here on good old Earth.

Have you ever fantasized about sound waves reducing you to a state of torpor?

34 comments:

typingtalker said...

Ann asks, "Have you ever fantasized about sound waves reducing you to a state of torpor?"

Muzak

Kate said...

"Hibernation" suggest physical torpor, something of no value to the state. What use is a body that needs to be fed but can't work? Mental torpor, that's yer good drudge labor.

Big Mike said...

Have you ever fantasized about sound waves reducing you to a state of torpor?

I can still recall some professors from 50+ years ago whose monotone delivery of their lectures did precisely that.

Scott Patton said...

Never fantasized about it. Sounds like school.

Enigma said...

Real human behavior is often worse than dystopian SciFi. SciFi is often just a mirror and extrapolation of the real world.

So they are planning this:

1. Cause mass torpor in an enemy group, as intended to be future slaves/Matrix batteries
2. Walk among them and inject COVID-29 or HIV or heroin on your own schedule
3. Require fealty from the new servant class for them to stay alive

Bloodless absolute tyranny is on our doorstep.

---

In other news, a wealthy Wyoming ranch owner with "checkerboard" land ownership sued four hunters for $7.75M because the crossed at the corner + of his land to access public lands trapped inside the ranch/fiefdom.

https://wyofile.com/judge-rules-in-favor-of-corner-crossing-hunters/

Wilbur said...

The sound of my Contracts professor reduced the class to a stupor three days a week.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Diff between stupor and torpor:

Internet: “stupor implies a deadening of the mind and senses by shock, narcotics, or intoxicants. torpor implies a state of suspended animation as of hibernating animals but may suggest merely extreme sluggishness.” Apr 21, 2023

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

This must be part of the explanation for excessive drug use, and maybe drinking in the 50s. If the world is frightening, and anything you do might be evil, you might embrace torpor.

Jamie said...

Wasn't there already a post about the Grateful Dead?

wendybar said...

It's what hummingbirds do when it is cold outside.

Bob Boyd said...

Have you ever fantasized about sound waves reducing you to a state of torpor?

No, but I'm starting today!

Bob Boyd said...

The sound wave technicians will be wearing lab bikinis.

mezzrow said...

When I'm lying there awake at 3 AM? You bet.

I try to think of old Percy Faith tunes but they come out as polkas.
Damn you, Brave Combo! *shakes fist*

Temujin said...

Windham Hill records.

J Severs said...

Both parties would be interested in inducing torpor in the voting booth.

tommyesq said...

Isn't that what our smartphones are doing to us right now?

re Pete said...

"Play Don Henley - play Glenn Frey

Take it to the Limit and let it go by"

typingtalker said...

From a review of Coma ...

Among the shocking and powerful sequences this movie offers there’s the chasing of Wheeler by a hired killer that lasts in the hospital’s morgue full with dead bodies hanging from the ceiling in transparent plastic bags in a sort of subrealistic scene; her visit to the mysterious Jefferson Institute where coma patients are held ...

IMDB on Coma

mikee said...

I, for one, look forward to my future state of torpor under the (yawn) control of the (yawn) hegemonic powers of the (yawn)....(snore).....

Smilin' Jack said...

"Have you ever fantasized about sound waves reducing you to a state of torpor?"

Every time I get on a long-distance flight and the stewardi start their yammering about seat belts and smoking.

cassandra lite said...

"Have you ever fantasized about sound waves reducing you to a state of torpor?"

No, but I saw the Allman Brothers Band play so loudly one night that, 50 years later, my fillings still hurt.

Aggie said...

Who needs science when we have cable TV?

Bruce Hayden said...

“"Hibernation" suggest physical torpor, something of no value to the state. What use is a body that needs to be fed but can't work? Mental torpor, that's yer good drudge labor.”

Someone beat me to the Matrix mention.

Here’s an idea. Democrats have a problem. They need to steal a lot of votes to retain power, but their policies get more and more unpopular, as they get more and more dysfunctional. There are laws on the books that require purging of voter lists, and once the dead are purged, they tend to stay purged. Also, when they move. Not every election has the Secretary of State running for Governor, able to switch registrations around for hundreds of thousands right around the election (as well as her other shenanigans). What to do? How about millions rendered torporous this way, and woken up, or not, just to vote? I know in Maricopa county, there is plenty of vacant industrial property just south of downtown PHX that could be used to warehouse excess voters between elections.

cubanbob said...

Considering who is running the country the electorate is in a state of torpor.

hombre said...

Here in the US, the "torpor" punchlines write themselves. More so in Canada.

n.n said...

Cacophony, audible dissonance, and generally bad music put me to sleep, turn it off, please.

Michael K said...

Nothing new. Democrats have succeeded in producing a state of "torpor" in their voters years ago.

madAsHell said...

Well.......there was that one Britney Spears album.

Is torpor the same as boring, trite, and predictable??

Yancey Ward said...

So that is what they are using on Joe Biden.

Leora said...

I think this happened to me once at a rock concert.

n.n said...

Falling rain drops, flowing streams, rustling leaves, rocking drums, rapping rhythms, emotive dissonance, a jackhammer in urbane vistas.

cremes said...

In reality, the massive rise in obesity across the world is likely related to the human race entering a light torpor. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) lowers your metabolism which means your daily energy expenditure is reduced, your breathing slows, and your body temperature decreases. Check your waking temperature and then again midday after a meal. If your temperature is under 98.6F then you are likely torpid.

Heart attacks were practically unknown until the 1920s when it SUDDENLY became the leading cause of death. Our country began integrating cottonseed oil into foodstuffs as early as 1870. The early 1900s also brought on iron "fortification" of our grains (fortified like our elections). Between the double whammy of massive PUFA and iron in our food, we have never been sicker. And let's not forget flouride in our water to make us dumber.

I've now hit the conspiracy trifecta. But all of this is true if you go down the rabbit hole and look it up yourself.

Thanks, Joe Biden!

William said...

The difference between flow and torpor is in the eye of the beholder or maybe in the eye of the participant or vice versa.

RigelDog said...

I thought the state of torpor was a province somewhere in South America.