# Going into stasis for a century; What do I need to take with me? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 16, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-into-stasis-for-a-century-what-do-i-need-to-take-with-me/554016 "2010-09-16T21:38:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-into-stasis-for-a-century-what-do-i-need-to-take-with-me/554016/21 "2010-09-19T20:37:27Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > (Don’t need answer fast, I’ve got plenty of time.) > > Long story short, I gained access to Skald’s vault of interesting and mostly harmless gadgets after distracting the flying monkey minions with a Peewee Herman mannequin. While there were plenty of cool toys, the selection that was easily portable was a bit on the light side. So since I already have a jet pack and a suitcase cold fusion generator I.. umm.. borrowed the stasis field generator. I have noted your theft. I would like to point out that you left the shrink-ray and tesseract generator behind, even though they were IN THE SAME ROOM as the stasis field generator. Anyway, you need to bring a somewhat more varied selection of weapons. You have to assume that 2110 is a post-apocalypstic wasteland peopled largelly by Sarah Palin clones or something even more horrible, and knives do not run out of ammunition. I know you’re thinking you can pack far more than you will ever run out of, but there’s a limit to how much you can carry. I will leave it to others to point out the problems of storing the gasoline outside the stasis field. ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-into-stasis-for-a-century-what-do-i-need-to-take-with-me/554016/22 "2010-09-20T04:55:19Z")
A lot of flexibility. Since not being bisexual is a sign of bigotry, can you get used to the mandatory social blowjob? Especially since after the Ovarian Plague of 2052, there is only one woman for every 500 men? And be sure not to mention if you’ve ever eaten meat, because that will mortally offend everyone who hears of it, and they will. Did I mention it’s illegal to offend people? Five-year sentence mining 20th-century dumps for the metal in old cans. And while you’re working, be extra nice to the rats. It might help the Parole Board think there’s hope for you, you repulsive carnivore. Maybe not that exact scenario, but one generation’s obvious truth is another’s joke. Bring those Rosetta Stone tapes, and maybe tattoo _O tempora, O mores!_ on your arm. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-into-stasis-for-a-century-what-do-i-need-to-take-with-me/554016/23 "2010-09-20T06:12:06Z")
I feel sorry for the people that went into stasis fifteen years ago. Those poor souls with their caves full of Beanie Babies. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-into-stasis-for-a-century-what-do-i-need-to-take-with-me/554016/24 "2010-09-20T06:16:08Z")
> [@coffeecat](#): > > Maybe not that exact scenario, but one generation’s obvious truth is another’s joke. Bring those Rosetta Stone tapes, and maybe tattoo _O tempora, O mores!_ on your arm. Better than tattooing “Gloria Populi” with a picture of a can opener, anyway. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-into-stasis-for-a-century-what-do-i-need-to-take-with-me/554016/25 "2010-09-20T10:32:06Z")
A reasonably well-made robot suit, so you can emerge without immediately being gutted by the Robot Revolution! ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-into-stasis-for-a-century-what-do-i-need-to-take-with-me/554016/26 "2010-09-20T20:55:47Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > You might want to have the guns and ammo hermetically sealed up before you go in—I don’t know what the security situation, tech level, or the level of panicky nanny-stateism is going to be like in a century, but it’d kinda suck if you tried to blend back into a city and ended up setting off alarms at the streetcorners that picked up traces of gun oil or smokeless powder. > > Some kind of dosimeter might be a good call, too. _Probably_ won’t be necessary, but at least if worse comes to worse, you’d know if you had to pop back into the stasis field for another century or so if you come out and everything’s covered with funny ash. Everything outside the field will be stored in sealed containers flushed with a nonreactive gas, argon or nitrogen. My primary defense weapons will be stored inside the field so deterioration won’t be a problem. The weapons stored outside should remain pristine, but the powder and primers in the ammo will have broken down to the point of only being of interest to collectors and historians. Dosimeter: Check. > [@ralph124c](#): > > I have an interest in your plans..I plan on going into “Coldsleep” for a longer period..200 to perhaps 250 years. > My main concern is my finances, when I emerge in AD 2240 or so. > I plan on a mixed portfolio of government bonds and stocks. Of course, my “unbreakable” trust has to last as well. > Comething that all of us time travelers have to consider. 100 invested at 7 percent interest for 100 years will become 100,000, at which time it will be worth absolutely nothing. -Lazarus Long- The problem with investments is that they have to be monitored and maintained. A blind trust or portfolio is only feasable for the 20 to 30 years I mentioned earlier. About a generation. After that you have serious problems regaining access to it. And the longer you wait, the harder it gets. That’s why I’m sticking to tangible goods that would be valuable to the upper classes. Booze and guns are a good bet for just about any society. > [@robert\_andrews](#): > > One thing you’re going to need that I don’t think has been mentioned is a plausible backstory, so people don’t get suspicious and decide to monitor or investigate you. > > E.g. figure out where your future persona is from and what they have been doing, and where all your neat 20th and 21st century stuff came from (great-grampa’s old AR-15 hunting rifle, and the five thousand USD in cash with dates in the 1990’s you could attribute to grandma’s crazy Aunt Tillie who thought that the electronic banking systems would fall in 2000 and never come back.) > > Your backstory should be dull/boring and non-trivial to verify, such as working in a coal mine in West Virginia or something that closed in 2080 after the mountains were depleted. Boring enough that many people wouldn’t care to look into it, and combined with the difficulty of it, most wouldn’t bother. > > This would be a good reason to take a previous poster’s advice and come out every once in a while to see what is going on, maybe listen to the radio a bit to see where the world is headed and decide what your persona is going to have done during that time, and monitor changes in accent and dialect so you don’t come out sounding horribly eccentric. > > If you have trouble with the 2100’s English that you find, if questioned about your accent or dialect, you could say you are a big fan of or a scholar of TV programs circa 2000, or maybe your parents were obsessed with it and taught you to speak like that (similar to how today, someone could be obsessed with Victorian novels and end up talking like Sherlock Holmes or something). I’m going to be pretty much screwed under any official scrutiny. I fully extect that in 2100 DNA printing at birth will be as common as footprinting is today, maybe even some sort of microchipping. Even if it isn’t, I will have too many anachronistic markings to pass as a citizen of the time. Fillings in my teeth, LASIK scars, small pox vaccine scar, implanted surgical hardware. I can hope to cover for speech and clothing by claiming to be a historian or historical reenactor. > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I have noted your theft. I would like to point out that you left the shrink-ray and tesseract generator behind, even though they were IN THE SAME ROOM as the stasis field generator. > > Anyway, you need to bring a somewhat more varied selection of weapons. You have to assume that 2110 is a post-apocalypstic wasteland peopled largelly by Sarah Palin clones or something even more horrible, and knives do not run out of ammunition. I know you’re thinking you can pack far more than you will ever run out of, but there’s a limit to how much you can carry. > > I will leave it to others to point out the problems of storing the gasoline outside the stasis field. Borrowed. I have every intention of returning it to you or your successor eventually. re: Tesseract generator, I’d respectfully suggest that you review the white paper on that device and then discuss it with whatever minion filed it under “mostly harmless”. Creating an unconstrained tachyon singularity pretty much guarantees anything I pack away will be useless in the absense of all life on the planet. More weapons. Check. Can I borrow a few pieces from the Vault of Decidedly Deadly Devices and Doodads? > [@coffeecat](#): > > A lot of flexibility. Since not being bisexual is a sign of bigotry, can you get used to the mandatory social blowjob? Especially since after the Ovarian Plague of 2052, there is only one woman for every 500 men? And be sure not to mention if you’ve ever eaten meat, because that will mortally offend everyone who hears of it, and they will. Did I mention it’s illegal to offend people? Five-year sentence mining 20th-century dumps for the metal in old cans. And while you’re working, be extra nice to the rats. It might help the Parole Board think there’s hope for you, you repulsive carnivore. > > Maybe not that exact scenario, but one generation’s obvious truth is another’s joke. Bring those Rosetta Stone tapes, and maybe tattoo _O tempora, O mores!_ on your arm. I suppose if O Mores! is too outlandish for me I could survive another month on MREs. Of course, they’d have to be pretty bizarre for MREs to be more attractive. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-into-stasis-for-a-century-what-do-i-need-to-take-with-me/554016/27 "2010-09-20T21:01:16Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > [QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] > > I have noted your theft. I would like to point out that you left the shrink-ray and tesseract generator behind, even though they were IN THE SAME ROOM as the stasis field generator. > > Anyway, you need to bring a somewhat more varied selection of weapons. You have to assume that 2110 is a post-apocalypstic wasteland peopled largelly by Sarah Palin clones or something even more horrible, and knives do not run out of ammunition. I know you’re thinking you can pack far more than you will ever run out of, but there’s a limit to how much you can carry. > > I will leave it to others to point out the problems of storing the gasoline outside the stasis field. Borrowed. I have every intention of returning it to you or your successor eventually. [/quote] “To live outside the law, you must first be honest.” Don’t faff about. If you’re going to steal, call it stealing, at least to yourself. If you’re going to DO it, you have to be willing to SAY it. > [@](#): > > re: Tesseract generator, I’d respectfully suggest that you review the white paper on that device and then discuss it with whatever minion filed it under “mostly harmless”. Creating an unconstrained tachyon singularity pretty much guarantees anything I pack away will be useless in the absense of all life on the planet. > > More weapons. Check. Can I borrow a few pieces from the Vault of Decidedly Deadly Devices and Doodads? Take what you wish. I have every confidence that your quest will end disasterously for you and spread chaos to everyone you encounter, so of course I support it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-into-stasis-for-a-century-what-do-i-need-to-take-with-me/554016.md?page=1)